Michigan Teams: Check Your Calendars!

[Robostang 548]

Ok, so today our coach got the email about the MME(Michigan Merit Examination) testing dates. This test is for all juniors in the state of Michigan and is mandatory to graduate. A problem is that almost 50% of my team is composed of juniors. My team is going to the Boilermaker Regional 3/13/2008 - 3/15/2008. The testing dates are from 3/11/2008 to 3/13/2008. This kind of generates a problem for half my team in terms of getting to Indiana. Our drivers are most likely going to be juniors and a lot of our pit crew members and sub-group leaders (programming, drive train, electrical, etc) are juniors. My question is, are any Michigan teams going a regional like Boilermaker or Detroit also running into this problem?

The makeup dates for the test are 3/25/2008 to 3/27/2008. That Thursday is also the first day of The Great Lakes Regional. We think we might be able to get our juniors to miss the test and take the retake. That way, we are all there at Boilermaker. Fortunately for us the Thursday of the retake gets out between 10am-12pm so our juniors should be able to make it to a lot of the practice matches as well as fixing the robot until the pits close if need be .

-Don

[KathieK]

Unfortunately this is a common problem in many states - it has affected CT teams for several years.

[MishraArtificer]

Has anyone said anything about this to the State Board of Education? Or would they care at this point?

Also, can you arrange for one or more mentors to stay behind and bring them to the Boilermaker after everyone else? Or, for that matter, buddy up with another team and offer to have your juniors caravan with theirs.

[KTorak]

You can miss the test day and just take it during the make ups. Also, the make up days do not run the same way the regular days are. The make up tests can be scheduled at any time over those 3 days. I know my school did it all on the first two make up days and didnt use the third. The only reason I know about missing is because we had the same issue last year and several of our Juniors missed the testing.

[rogerlsmith]

My daughter is in the same situation. We are planning on going to Milwaukee that weekend, so she asked if she could take the test at a make-up time and she was told that she could not....

[GaryVoshol]

There is no way that your school is going to give your students permission to travel rather than take the MME. This test is absolutely required for students to take.

The makeup date is during Spring Break for many districts, and the State Board of Ed didn't budge. They're not going to give a waiver because of "some robotics competition".

This should not have been a surprise - it was on our school calendar from September. It was also posted here on CD before regional registration.

[KathieK]

Mandatory testing dates conflict with so many regionals that we've included it as a question to ask the school before registering for an event, in our NEMO white paper on how to choose a FIRST event. http://www.firstnemo.org/PDF/Choosing_Your_Event.pdf

[65_Xero_Huskie]

This was the problem last year as well with a regional. We had the kids go on the trip and take the makeups. So it shouldnt be a huge problem, but you need to plan it

[KTorak]

Taking the make up isn't a big deal. Several team members from my team missed the last day of testing to travel to Purdue. There were no adverse consequences other than having to miss part of another school day to make up the test.

As for the spring breaks, my school moved out break to before Easter to accommodate the make up testing.