You have to give good grades to the state Department of Education for orchestrating a nifty and positive spin on the latest round of test scores for kids in grades three through 11th grade, and at first blush you would walk away from the results with a smile on your face.

After all the department proudly reported, with a straight face, that two-thirds of the students who took the test improved on their test scores compared to last year. That is a true statement. It is also, the critics contend, just a tad misleading to the unsuspecting parent. After a deeper dive into the data, the smile on your mug might disappear.

Here’s what the “improvement” means. If your child scored a 25 percent on the reading test for example last year and this year he or she got a 30 percent that indeed is an improvement but the kid still flunked the test.

For some unexplained reason the department did not include that fact in its handout for the media.

Hmm. Wonder why?

In the briefing, the chief test administrator Vanessa Keesler told a reporter that he could report these findings any way he wanted when she was asked, “is it fair to say that the vast majority of students did not pass the test?” She eventually conceded the point because there it was in black and white.

Out of all the students who took the M-STEP exam, the fifth graders were the only ones to reach a 50 percent proficiency level. Put another way, half of those students passed the exam while every other student in all those other grades did not.

Hmm. Wonder why that was not in the news release?

If you are old school you know that if you took a 100-question exam and you got over half of the answers wrong you would have flunked it or “Freddied” it as we use to say instead of saying you got an “F.”

However Ms. Keesler indicates that the state test is not a flunk or pass venture. Nope. It’s a diagnostic tool to help identify where children need to improve. And she was very proud, as well she should be, that the state got these results into the hands of parent and teachers in record time so remedial help can be applied faster. In past years, the parents and teachers waited a year to get the results. So give the department an A-plus on turnaround. It also cut down the testing time by eight hours.

But the fact remains the vast majority of students are not proficient in math, science, and or language arts that use to be know as plain old reading.

In fact the all-important third grade reading scores were down despite state efforts to pump them up.

Ms. Keesler indicates there is work to be done in all of these areas.

Ya think.

One state lawmaker believes part of the challenge here is that the legislature, governor and educators keep inventing new tests. For years the MEAP exam was used, but then they tossed that out and haggled forever and came up with M-STEP which is being administered via the computer except in those schools where there are none.

“They keep changing the test,” observes Rep. Tom Cochran, D-Mason, who sides with the teachers who gripe about the changes. And believe it or not, lawmakers are looking at yet another test change, although the current version will remain in effect for at least one more year.

“We are working with the stake-holders on that,” Ms. Keesler reports.

Some wags in town have suggested when the legislature alters it again this time it should include a provision that every lawmaker and the governor take the exam, too.

Hmm.

Wonder why that will never pass?