Teachers, administrators criticize latest MEA tests

AUGUSTA — Designers of the Maine Educational Assessment tests have agreed to review suggestions from critics who say the latest batch of tests for fourth-graders contains serious flaws.

The tests, administered during a four-day period in late January, came under fire from a coalition of 24 southern Maine school districts.

More than 100 teachers, principals and superintendents flooded a meeting Thursday at the University of Southern Maine to plot strategy for fixing the tests.

Many teachers claim the questions and instructions are written far beyond the level of fourth-graders. Some teachers themselves said they had trouble understanding some questions.

Jeanette Almy, principal of SAD 72 in Brownfield, said she was stumped by a question that asked her fourth-graders to write about their mayor. Brownfield and six other towns in SAD 72 don’t have mayors.