Social Studies MEAP Information

MEAP Vocabulary  

MEAP Test Format

MEAP Extended Response Items

MEAP Inquiry Items
     - Guidelines
     - Samples

Scoring Changes

Holistic Feature Scoring of Civic Writing - Grades 6, 9 and 11

International Organizations

Due Process MEAP Items

Hispanic Names

Hopewell Indian Resources

How Can a School District Best Prepare for the Social Studies MEAP?

MEAP Test Format  
The Social Studies MEAP Test will again mainly be made up of selected response items and one extended response item.  The selected response items will include a cluster of five questions related to Inquiry mainly involving the interpretation of graphs.  There will again be NO constructed response items.

MEAP Inquiry Items 
In order to increase the ability to test knowledge of the Inquiry Strand of the Content Standards and Benchmarks, an Inquiry selected response cluster will again be on the Social Studies MEAP Tests.  The cluster will require students to title and label graphs, determine the relationship between variables, identify a trend depicted in a graph and predict what the future trend might be.  Students will be given the graphical data and be asked to choose the correct answer instead of actually constructing a graph of their interpretation as they did in the old constructed response item format.  The student and interpretation of graphs needs to be a part of your social studies curriculum. 

• Guidelines

• Samples

Scoring Changes 
Detailed descriptions of the holistic scoring for the extended response Social Studies MEAP items are attached for grades 6, 9, and 11.  The basic changes will be:

6th grade:  Total of 3 points. One point for:  

• Position statement with support

• Use of Data Section in support of position

• Use of Core Democratic Value in support of position

9th grade:  Total of 4 points.  One point for:

• Position statement with support

• Use of Data Section in support of position

• Use of Core Democratic Value in support of position

• Use of other social studies knowledge in support of position 

11th grade:  Total of 5 points.  One point for:

• Position statement with support

• Use of Data Section in support of position

• Use of Core Democratic Value in support of position

• Use of other social studies knowledge in support of position

• Refutation of alternative position 

Back to Top

International Organizations
The content standards and benchmarks for social studies require students to have knowledge of international organizations.  This list was created for teachers to assist them by identifying the international organizations that could be used as examples on the 5th, 8th, and 11th grade social studies portion of the MEAP.

Due Process MEAP Items 
According to test data, Michigan students are struggling with the constitutional protection of due process.  The first reference to due process of law in the Michigan Curriculum Framework is found in the later elementary benchmarks.  

Hispanic Names  
The MEAP Office has published a list of the Hispanic names that will be used in test items.  Some students have been confused when they read some of these names on the test and confused them with social studies content.  The official list of Hispanic names that will be used is:

Back to Top

How Can a School District Best Prepare for the Social Studies MEAP? 
A number of items have been made available to schools by the MEAP office to help them prepare their students for a successful social studies MEAP experience.  Many of these aids have been communicated to Macomb County schools in previous communications.  Some of these items include:

1. Michigan Content Standards and Benchmarks - Make sure your social studies curriculum is in alignment with the Michigan Curriculum Framework. No new social studies benchmarks have been added from the original 1996 version. If you need a copy of the Framework, it is available at:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MichiganCurriculumFramework_8172_7.pdf  
   
2. Released MEAP Items - Schools are allowed to use MEAP Released Items for instructional or practice purposes. Items (with answers) have been available since 1999. These items can be found at: 
   http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-22709_31168_31175---,00.html 
   
3. History Themes - The History Themes Project is a reasonable and valid selection of important events, people and ideas for both Michigan and United States History to guide Michigan teachers. The project lists themes and examples that are rich enough to support the four standards for teaching and learning. The History Themes project also provides six themes to focus history instruction at grades 4, 5, 8 and 9/10/11. The items listed in this Project are the source for History MEAP test items. You can access the History Themes at: http://www.michiganepic.org/historythemes/
   On the 5th grade MEAP, one history selected response cluster will deal with Michigan History from its beginning to the present day. The MEAP Office felt this would be appropriate because Michigan Studies (including Michigan History) was covered in the fourth grade curriculum. 
   
4. MIClimb - MIClimb is a curriculum resource for the arts, English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. It has been distributed through the MISD to local district central administrators to be distributed to their staff members. Each benchmark has been explained with a clarification statement, an instructional example, an assessment example, and resources related to the benchmark. MIClimb is on the CD that every teacher should have received by now or it is available at: http://www.miclimb.net  
   
5. SCoPE - The Sample Curriculum and Plans for Education (SCoPE) site offers practical classroom support to all Michigan education professionals. It provides units of study clearly linked to Michigan's content standards, benchmarks and statewide assessments. The site also provides teachers with detailed plans for teaching lessons in each unit of study. SCoPE can be found at: http://www.michigan.gov/scope. 
   
6. Social Studies Glossary - This glossary is a tool to help teachers understand the language of social studies. The 35 page document is intended for teacher use only and contains many more terms and concepts than we expect our K-12 students to master. Many of the technical social studies terms from our benchmarks can be found in the glossary. The glossary is available at: http://www.michigan.gov/mde/1,1607,7-140-6525_6568-19452--,00.html  

Back to Top