LANSING, Mich. — Michigan middle school students will face changes to state mandatory testing this spring.
Michigan eighth graders will be taking the College Board’s PSAT 8/9 test in Math and English Language Arts. The new test will replace the ‘Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress,’ also known as the M-STEP Test.
The PSAT is a practice version of the SAT that 11th graders take as part of the college admission process. Ninth and tenth graders already take the PSAT.
The shift for eighth graders will come two years after the state legislature required Michigan’s eighth grade Math and English Language Arts assessment use a test aligned to the college entrance exams.
Eighth graders will still be required to take the M-STEP in science and social studies.
Students are not time on the M-STEP and use a combination of paper and online materials for the test.
The PSAT times test is about two and a half hours with breaks and is only given on paper and pencil.
The PSAT is a test used to help educators and students figure out what essential skills need to be worked on, while the M-STEP is designed to measure how well students are mastering state standards.
Eighth graders will still have to take the M-STEP in Science and Social Studies in April and May.
The M-STEP will allow educators to compare results from about one dozen states.
Education officials say that’s expected to continue because federal rules require a measure of those standards.
