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Minnesota officials on Friday publicly released data summarizing scores from statewide math and reading tests conducted earlier this year. Results show little has changed over the past year. On a more positive note, attendance figures show more students are showing up regularly to classes.
Just under 50 percent of students met the state’s proficiency-level grade standard in reading — the same as last year. And 45.21 percent of students tested met math standards, similar to last year’s 45.5 scores.
“As students return for a new school year, this data gives us information about where students are and how we can best support them,” state education commissioner Willie Jett said.
The data release summarizes results from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment, an exam administered to students statewide every spring. Searchable results are on the state department of education’s website.
Experts say the tests are useful for getting a partial picture of how well the public education system performs. But the data is flawed when it comes to measuring progress made by high school students, said Julio Caesar, executive director of research, evaluation and assessment at Bloomington Public Schools.
“We’re not confident in those scores because (exam) opt out rates are fairly significant in our district,” Caesar said.
High school students tend not to care about MCAs, he explained. They’re more focused on tests like the ACT and SAT because those sorts of tests actually matter for their future.
“Many of our high school students tell us that they're prioritizing tests that matter to them,” Caesar said. “They feel that there's very little incentive to try on the state test. So some students actually report that they just click through the test, and when they get a ‘too fast’ warning, they simply slow down.”
Caesar and his colleagues have advocated for Minnesota to end MCA testing in high school and focus data collection on the ACT and SAT instead.
Attendance is up
State officials on Friday also released data detailing statewide attendance trends that show a rise of more than one percentage point.
Statewide, 75.5 percent of students attended classes at least 90 percent of the time in the 2023-2024 school year. That’s up from 74.5 percent in the 2022-2023 school year.
Chronic absenteeism exploded during and after the pandemic and has been a focus of school leaders and state policy makers. A legislative group spent months studying the issue last year and lawmakers passed several laws to address poor attendance this spring.
The numbers released Friday don’t reflect what’s happened over the past twelve months, but state leaders said they were encouraged to see progress in the 2023-2024 academic year.
For Michael Diedrich, a policy expert at Minnesota’s education department, attendance gains are tied to efforts schools are making to get students more consistently connected to their teachers and school communities following the pandemic.
“The broader context here is trying to make sure that districts across the state are continuing to make efforts to re-establish connections between schools, students and families by increasing the sense of belonging at schools,” Diedrich said. “We talk about improving attendance, it's not just about this as a matter of compliance. It's about what is that strength of connectedness between students and families in their schools.”
State leaders used this week’s data release to point out how the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the U.S. Department of Education and cut off federal funds is making Minnesota schools’ work more difficult.
“We're making sure that, as the storm is going on — and I’m using that word storm, as things are uncertain … that we’re trying to make sure that we shield our educators and our young people so that they can do the important work within a classroom,” Jett said.
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