Sec. 1279g.

(1) The board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy shall comply with this section and shall administer the Michigan merit examination to pupils in grade 11, and to pupils in grade 12 who did not take the complete Michigan merit examination in grade 11, as provided in this section.

(2) For the purposes of this section, the department of technology, management, and budget shall contract with 1 or more providers to develop, supply, and score the Michigan merit examination. The Michigan merit examination shall consist of all of the following:

(a) Assessment instruments that measure English language arts, mathematics, reading, and science and are used by colleges and universities in this state for entrance or placement purposes. This shall include a writing component in which the pupil produces an extended writing sample. The Michigan merit examination shall not require any other extended writing sample.

(b) One or more tests from 1 or more test developers that assess a pupil's ability to apply at least reading and mathematics skills in a manner that is intended to allow employers to use the results in making employment decisions. The department of technology, management, and budget and the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any test or tests selected under this subdivision have all the components necessary to allow a pupil to be eligible to receive the results of a nationally recognized evaluation of workforce readiness if the pupil's test performance is adequate.

(c) A social studies component.

(d) Any other component that is necessary to obtain the approval of the United States Department of Education to use the Michigan merit examination for the purposes of the no child left behind act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, or the every student succeeds act, Public Law 114-95.

(3) In addition to all other requirements of this section, all of the following apply to the Michigan merit examination:

(a) The department of technology, management, and budget and the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contractor used for scoring the Michigan merit examination supplies an individual report for each pupil that will identify for the pupil's parents and teachers whether the pupil met expectations or failed to meet expectations for each standard, to allow the pupil's parents and teachers to assess and remedy problems before the pupil moves to the next grade.

(b) The department of technology, management, and budget and the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contractor used for scoring, developing, or processing the Michigan merit examination meets quality management standards commonly used in the assessment industry, including at least meeting level 2 of the capability maturity model developed by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University for the first year the Michigan merit examination is offered to all grade 11 pupils and at least meeting level 3 of the capability maturity model for subsequent years.

(c) The department of technology, management, and budget and the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that any contract for scoring, administering, or developing the Michigan merit examination includes specific deadlines for all steps of the assessment process, including, but not limited to, deadlines for the correct testing materials to be supplied to schools and for the correct results to be returned to schools, and includes penalties for noncompliance with these deadlines.

(d) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the Michigan merit examination meets all of the following:

(i) Is designed to test pupils on grade level content expectations or course content expectations, as appropriate, in all subjects tested.

(ii) Complies with requirements of the no child left behind act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, or the every student succeeds act, Public Law 114-95, as applicable.

(iii) Is consistent with the code of fair testing practices in education prepared by the joint committee on testing practices of the American Psychological Association.

(iv) Is factually accurate. If the superintendent of public instruction determines that a question is not factually accurate and should be excluded from scoring, the state board and the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the question is excluded from scoring.

(4) A school district or public school academy that operates a high school shall include on each pupil's high school transcript all of the following:

(a) For each high school graduate who has completed the Michigan merit examination under this section, the pupil's scaled score on each subject area component of the Michigan merit examination.

(b) The number of school days the pupil was in attendance at school each school year during high school and the total number of school days in session for each of those school years.

(5) The superintendent of public instruction shall work with the provider or providers of the Michigan merit examination to produce Michigan merit examination subject area scores for each pupil participating in the Michigan merit examination, including scaling and merging of test items for the different subject area components. The superintendent of public instruction shall design and distribute to school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts, and nonpublic schools a simple and concise document that describes the scoring for each subject area and indicates the scaled score ranges for each subject area.

(6) The Michigan merit examination shall be administered each year after March 1 and before June 1 to pupils in grade 11. The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the Michigan merit examination is scored and the scores are returned to pupils, their parents or legal guardians, and schools not later than the beginning of the pupil's first semester of grade 12. The returned scores shall indicate at least the pupil's scaled score for each subject area component and the range of scaled scores for each subject area. In reporting the scores to pupils, parents, and schools, the superintendent of public instruction shall provide standards-specific, meaningful, and timely feedback on the pupil's performance on the Michigan merit examination.

(7) A school district or public school academy shall administer the complete Michigan merit examination to a pupil only once and shall not administer the complete Michigan merit examination to the same pupil more than once. If a pupil does not take the complete Michigan merit examination in grade 11, the school district or public school academy shall administer the complete Michigan merit examination to the pupil in grade 12. If a pupil chooses to retake the college entrance examination component of the Michigan merit examination, as described in subsection (2)(a), the pupil may do so through the provider of the college entrance examination component and the cost of the retake is the responsibility of the pupil unless all of the following are met:

(a) The pupil has taken the complete Michigan merit examination.

(b) The pupil meets the income eligibility criteria for free breakfast, lunch, or milk, as determined under the Richard B. Russell national school lunch act, 42 USC 1751 to 1769j.

(c) The pupil has applied to the provider of the college entrance examination component for a scholarship or fee waiver to cover the cost of the retake and that application has been denied.

(d) After taking the complete Michigan merit examination, the pupil has not already received a free retake of the college entrance examination component paid for either by this state or through a scholarship or fee waiver by the provider.

(8) The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the length of the Michigan merit examination and the combined total time necessary to administer all of the components of the Michigan merit examination are the shortest possible that will still maintain the degree of reliability and validity of the Michigan merit examination results determined necessary by the superintendent of public instruction. The superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the maximum total combined length of time that schools are required to set aside for pupils to answer all test questions on the Michigan merit examination does not exceed 8 hours if the superintendent of public instruction determines that sufficient alignment to applicable Michigan merit curriculum content standards can be achieved within that time limit.

(9) A school district or public school academy shall provide accommodations to a pupil with disabilities for the Michigan merit examination, as provided under section 504 of title V of the rehabilitation act of 1973, 29 USC 794; subtitle A of title II of the Americans with disabilities act of 1990, 42 USC 12131 to 12134; the individuals with disabilities education act amendments of 1997, Public Law 105-17; and the implementing regulations for those statutes. The provider or providers of the Michigan merit examination and the superintendent of public instruction shall mutually agree upon the accommodations to be provided under this subsection.

(10) To the greatest extent possible, the Michigan merit examination shall be based on grade level content expectations or course content expectations, as appropriate. Not later than July 1, 2008, the department shall identify specific grade level content expectations to be taught before and after the middle of grade 11, so that teachers will know what content will be covered within the Michigan merit examination.

(11) A child who is a student in a nonpublic school or home school may take the Michigan merit examination under this section. To take the Michigan merit examination, a child who is a student in a home school shall contact the school district in which the child resides, and that school district shall administer the Michigan merit examination, or the child may take the Michigan merit examination at a nonpublic school if allowed by the nonpublic school. Upon request from a nonpublic school, the superintendent of public instruction shall direct the provider or providers to supply the Michigan merit examination to the nonpublic school and the nonpublic school may administer the Michigan merit examination. If a school district administers the Michigan merit examination under this subsection to a child who is not enrolled in the school district, the scores for that child are not considered for any purpose to be scores of a pupil of the school district.

(12) In contracting under subsection (2), the department of technology, management, and budget shall consider a contractor that provides electronically-scored essays with the ability to score constructed response feedback in multiple languages and provide ongoing instruction and feedback.

(13) The purpose of the Michigan merit examination is to assess pupil performance in mathematics, science, social studies, and English language arts for the purpose of improving academic achievement and establishing a statewide standard of competency. The assessment under this section provides a common measure of data that will contribute to the improvement of Michigan schools' curriculum and instruction by encouraging alignment with Michigan's curriculum framework standards and promotes pupil participation in higher level mathematics, science, social studies, and English language arts courses. These standards are based upon the expectations of what pupils should learn through high school and are aligned with national standards.

(14) In addition to the other requirements of this section and the requirements of 1970 PA 38, MCL 388.1081 to 388.1086, beginning with assessments conducted during the 2016-2017 school year, the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the Michigan merit examination social studies component and the M-STEP and any successor state assessment for social studies, as appropriate, include questions related to the learning objectives in the state board recommended model core academic curriculum standards concerning genocide, including, but not limited to, the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.

(15) As used in this section:

(a) "Armenian Genocide", "genocide", and "Holocaust" mean those terms as defined in section 1168.

(b) "English language arts" means reading and writing.

(c) "Social studies" means United States history, world history, world geography, economics, and American government.

History: Add. 2004, Act 596, Imd. Eff. Jan. 5, 2005 ;-- Am. 2008, Act 349, Imd. Eff. Dec. 23, 2008 ;-- Am. 2016, Act 170, Imd. Eff. June 14, 2016 Popular Name: Act 451