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Students in Lapeer County are no exception to the retakes.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot published information Oct. 9 on the essay portion of the standardized test, which caused the Michigan Department of Education to flag the breach in security. A breach is defined in official state documents as "any unauthorized person who sees, copies, distributes, or has access to secure tests." It's not known how many kids are affected statewide.

According to an e-mail from Martin Ackley of the Michigan Department of Education sent to school districts, the department said it had no choice but to take the action "as a result of an egregious mistake made in one school district" and "we are thoroughly investigating the situation at the school district and are examining the potential penalties."

The e-mail continued to say the retake decision was made because the writing prompt accounts for 30% of the score — which could be the difference of schools making Adequate Yearly Progress according to federal standards. Throwing the test out would have threatened the integrity of the test and noncompliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Also, some students would have had an advantage by knowing the writing prompt that would allow them to prepare for the test.

School officials in Lapeer County were angered by the news their students will now have to retake part 1A on writing from knowledge and experience.

"For us, retaking the writing section is as big of a deal as people make it," said Bill Kalmar, principal of Borland Elementary School in Imlay City. The window for MEAPS is Oct. 8-26. "The state will provide us with a new writing prompt. I don't think the state will have a new writing prompt before Oct. 26. It's an inconvenience, but credibility is the bottom line. I commend the state for this."

Todd Bidlack, principal of Dryden Elementary School, said the state will have to reprint the test that is based on benchmarks. "The state doesn't know what the (new) writing prompt will be. I personally would be surprised if (the retake date) comes back before Christmas," Bidlack said. "It will delay the results. I don't see it as being a huge inconvenience. Kids don't want to retake the test again. It will end up costing the department of education."

Anne Wood, principal of Ruth Fox Elementary School in North Branch has taken maintained a positive attitude about the writing test situation. "They're saying we'll have to retake the writing part. It means we'll do our best with what we have. The bottom line is we're judged on our best. I'm sure we did very well," Wood said. "Two years ago our writing scores weren't very well. We use the six traits of writing. We also have an English Language Arts coach to focus on writing scores and we researched different programs. Writing is implemented across our curriculum. We have to be positive about it."

Erik Mason, principal of Imlay City Middle School said he has around 180 sixth-graders affected by the security blunder. "It's good the state took credibility so seriously," Mason said. "We didn't receive any complaint calls, just parents calling to make sure the school knows."

Rex Hart, supervisor of student services in the Lapeer Community Schools, said he wasn't happy seven schools in his district will have to retake the test. Schools in LCS that will have to retake the test include Seaton, Murphy, Maple Grove, Lynch, Mayfield, Schickler, and Turrill.

"Five of seven of our schools already took the test," Hart said. "There's a lot involved to giving MEAPS and they're always on our minds. This will cost millions and instructional hours. It's a huge inconvenience and a problem with rescheduling.

"It's a tough situation, but it's the school district that allowed this to happen that bothers me," he added. "I'm just glad it wasn't us (that breached the test)."

The department of education said it should know by early next week the date the test will be retaken.

It is known that by retaking the test, reporting of the MEAP scores will be delayed.

Jennifer Decker can be reached at (810) 664-0811, Ext. 8125 or jennifer.decker@lapeergroup.com.