While the percentage of Michigan students whose Michigan Merit Exam scores are proficient continues to grow, Dearborn Public Schools students fell short of the state for the second year in a row.

More: See Dearborn Patch readers' reactions to 2011 scores.

The scores, released Thursday by the Michigan Department of Education, show areas of students' strengths and weaknesses in all areas of the test, which 11th graders took over three days in March.

For Dearborn students, reading and writing continue to be top subjects, while science and social studies proficiency levels came in 11 and 10 percentage points below state levels, respectively.

Dearborn High School and the Henry Ford Early College showed the highest levels of proficiency and top average ACT scores. Proficiency levels for Dearborn High students were higher than state levels in every subject except social studies.

Statewide student achievement on the 2012 MME shows positive one-year gains and even larger four-year gains in mathematics, reading, writing, and science, the Michigan Department of Education reported Thursday.

The overall composite scores for Michigan high school juniors on the ACT college-entrance exam also increased for the fourth consecutive year, as did the percentage of Michigan students who are career- and college-ready.

“The impact of having students engage in the rigorous Michigan Merit Curriculum is evident here,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. “When students have the benefit of learning higher-level subject material, more will become career- and college-ready and prepared for success.

“We have to make sure we keep motivating all students with a challenging curriculum, and not give in to thinking that our kids just can’t do it. They can and they are,” Flanagan added.

The following chart shows the percentage of students who scored "proficient" or "advanced" in test subjects, comparing 2011 to 2012.

This past year, the state adopted "cut scores" for the MEAP and MME that represented career- and college-ready achievement standards.

According to the Michigan Department of Education, cut scores better reflect how well schools are preparing students for success at the next grade level and whether all Michigan students are progressing at a level sufficient for them to be career- and college-ready when they complete their high school education.

These more rigorous cut scores have been applied operationally for the first time to the MME scores released Thursday, as well as retroactively applied to MME results from prior years for purposes of accurate comparison.

Source: Michigan Dept. of Education