With the results of the inaugural Arizona’s Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching exam (AzMERIT) set to release Nov. 30, the Arizona State Board of Education, along with individual districts like Fountain Hills Unified, have been working to prepare students, parents and teachers for a statewide shift in standards and practices.

As FHUSDistrict Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sweeney explained in a recent letter to local parents, AzMERIT is new to everyone, including teachers and administrators around the state.

As such, Sweeney outlined a few key things for everyone to keep in mind when going over results, including the fact that lower performances were expected from the onset.

While the former measurement for standards, AIMS, was adopted at the turn of the century, AzMERIT is the result of a recent shift in standards.

In short: Standards have been raised, and so a new measurement instrument needed to be established to reflect those changes.

To that end, the Arizona State Board of Education adopted the AzMERIT exam in November of 2014.

After a quick turnaround to produce the exam, students were tested in the spring of 2015. The current test was built from a similar exam issued in Utah and adjusted to match Arizona’s new standards.

AzMERIT will be further adjusted in the coming years, with initial results helping to guide those changes.

Last spring, students in grades 3-12 were tested, with the science portion of the AIMS test still administered to students in fourth and eighth grade, as well as high school.

Put simply, AzMERIT tests what new state standards dictate a student should know at each grade level in the area of language arts and mathematics.

According to the Arizona State Board of Education, AzMERIt is focused on critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the subject material, with students needing to show their work through more rigorous questions.

Similar to the test itself, AzMERIT’s results have also undergone some changes.

Students are now given one of four possible indicators for each area tested, called performance levels. A student is either marked highly proficient, proficient, partially proficient or minimally proficient.

Local parents have already received individualized results for their children based on these ratings.

Though results are under embargo until Nov. 30, administrators and teachers have also been provided with early access to results so that they may guide educational decisions more quickly.

As stressed by the Arizona State Board of Education and Sweeney, lower passing rates were expected for this initial round of testing.

Sweeney pinpointed three key factors he wished local parents and stakeholders to keep in mind when viewing results.

For starters, he said that FHUSD teachers have multiple ways of measuring a student’s learning, and that AzMERIT is just one tool in the box.

“This is a transition year for Arizona schools,” Sweeney said in his letter to local parents.

“AzMERIT looks different from previous tests because it is a new test and is setting a higher bar for what students need to know and be able to do. Teachers, students and parents are all making adjustments and getting used to the modified way teachers are teaching and students are learning.”

Sweeney said that individual test results may appear lower than normal, but that’s no cause for alarm.

“…That is what we expect during this transition,” he reiterated.

“It doesn’t mean your child is doing worse. Instead, scores will provide a more accurate view of how your child is doing relative to the new, more rigorous academic standards.”

As such, Sweeney said he feels that AzMERIT should help put Arizona schools on “the right track.”

“Arizona is asking more from our students so they can achieve their full potential,” he said.

As a final reminder and unlike with the previous AIMS examinations, Sweeney pointed out that results on the AzMERIT exam will not have an impact on a student’s ability to graduate.