About MAC

Mission, Vision, Beliefs

Mission

The mission of the Michigan Assessment Consortium is to improve student learning and achievement through a system of coherent curriculum, balanced assessment and effective instruction. We do this by collaboratively...

  • Promoting assessment knowledge and practice.
  • Providing professional development.
  • Producing and sharing assessment tools and products.

Vision for Michigan Educators includes the following…

Formative assessment and a balanced assessment system are valued components of Michigan education. All Michigan educators understand and implement a system of coherent curriculum, balanced assessment and effective instruction. A network of assessment coaches and partners, function effectively, to support the implementation of sound, balanced assessment practices. All teachers and administrators graduating from Michigan institutions of higher education are adequately prepared in formative assessment practices and balanced assessment systems. Michigan educational entities (e.g. districts, ISDs, educational organizations, universities, etc.) actively seek to collaborate with other entities on the development of assessment products and services. Information on assessment products and services is readily available, in an organized manner, to Michigan educators.

Michigan Assessment Consortium Beliefs

We believe…

  • Voluntary collaboratives and consortia are the best way to advance the work of balanced assessment.
  • The MAC can help educators throughout the state view balanced assessment as a valued enterprise and participate fully in this initiative.
  • Students are the most important users of classroom assessment data.
  • Teachers and administrators need to understand that one of the most important purposes of classroom assessment is to engage students in the learning process.
  • We believe that all educators can learn to implement an effective, balanced assessment system.
  • Instructional leaders, such as building principals and central office staff, must be assessment literate and support the implementation of a balanced assessment system.
  • The development and effective use of a coherent system, including a guaranteed and viable curriculum, effective instruction and balanced assessment, involves and informs all stakeholders and ensures quality education for each student.
  • An effective assessment system includes a balance of classroom, school, district and state measures and uses a variety of sound assessment methods to serve multiple users, of which formative and classroom assessments have the greatest impact on student learning.

History of the Organization

In 2007-08 Kim Young, then an educator on loan to MDE and Ed Roeber, then director of MDE Office of Assessment and Accountability, convened a series of meetings for educators interested in balanced assessment practices – the group of 50-100 was called the Balanced Assessment Leadership Group. Ed Roeber wrote a prospectus explaining potential projects a statewide consortium could undertake. Kathy Dewsbury-White, then Director of Curriculum for Ingham ISD, Kim Young and Ed Roeber invited anyone interested from BALG to help conceptualize a new statewide assessment consortium. At a retreat in Walhalla, MI – the Michigan Assessment Consortium – or the MAC for short, was founded (September 2008). The group adopted a Constitution and Bylaws a year later (2009) and functioned as an unincorporated directorship organization for four years. May 2012 the consortium became a not-for-profit corporation. The mission, vision and beliefs remain the same -- to improve student learning and achievement through a system of coherent curriculum, balanced assessment and effective instruction, by

  • Promoting assessment knowledge and practice 
  • Providing professional development and
  • Producing and sharing assessment tools and products

The consortium places a premium on accomplishing the work through collaboration. The current board consists of members whose organizations provide their expertise in-kind. Several organizations support the work of the MAC through in-kind services – MASCD, MAISA, MDE and many individual ISDs/RESAs. The president of the MAC Board, Kathy Dewsbury-White, was appointed to serve as the CEO of the new not-for-profit corporation, MAC, Inc.