Starting Smarter

Family and school partnerships are key to your child’s success. Given the disruptions to learning over the past year, it is more important than ever for you to have a complete picture of where your child is academically and how the pandemic impacted their learning. In addition to report card grades, class tests, and your own observations of your child’s learning over the past year, you can use score reports to better understand your child’s strengths and areas for improvement. Then, you can partner with teachers in the fall to co-create learning goals for the school year.

Understanding the Score Report and Areas

It is natural for every student to have academic strengths as well as areas where they may need more support and improvement. The tests your child takes are meant to measure the most important skills in each subject. The 2021 ELA and math tests were shorter, and with fewer questions, the scores could not be broken down into different performance areas. Students will only receive an overall score in each subject.

(Download a sample score report)

Performance Areas in this score report

Check out the Test Questions

Enter your child’s grade and select a subject and area to see descriptions of the skills and sample test questions in each performance area.

Additional Free Resources Available to Support Your Child's Learning

Use this information to have a meaningful conversation with your child’s teacher about the skills and content in the grade level and to support your child’s learning at home.

  • Michigan eLibrary

    MeL Kids

    Visit the Kids page on the Michigan eLibrary or MeL website to find help with school work or a new book to read.
    Go to the MeL Kids page

  • Plan for Your Parent-Teacher Conversations

    Use this tool to have a meaningful conversation about your child’s test results and to co-create a learning plan with the teacher.

    Go to the Planning Tool

  • Check out the test in action

    Visit the M-STEP online practice site to try out live, interactive questions and the testing features students can use. You can also watch the online tutorial your child will view in class when preparing to take the M-STEP.

    Take Practice Test