While much of what has taken place, or not taken place, in the legislature this spring has become the equivalent of a political football, there is something happening that affects all schools in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Education requested, and was subsequently granted, a waiver from the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act rules under the current accountability system. This act is more commonly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
We are currently in the season of assessments, where each child is given a one day, one shot chance at getting to the level of proficiency deemed necessary by the testing gurus at MDE. This is a very important time for our district, as we have taken great pride in the fact that our district has not been “on the list” of schools listed as failing under the current system. There is a very complicated formula used to determine whether schools or districts made “AYP” (adequate yearly progress) under the current testing standards, and even some folks at the department had difficulty explaining the system to schools.
Changes to this system will result in more measures than just the one time shot at testing to be included in the calculation of AYP. Schools will now be given an annual Multiple Measurements Rating (MMR). This rating is calculated using data from the following four measures; Proficiency, Student Growth, Achievement Gap Closure, and Graduation Rate. We at Central have always been on the student growth bandwagon as a more true measure of what students learn, as all students learn at different rates, come from varying backgrounds, transfer into and out of school districts, and like every other human being on the planet, have good days and not so good days. This part of the change we view as a positive, as staff at Central has always done a great job of meeting kids where they are and taking them forward.
Graduation Rate and Achievement Gap Closure are not of great concern for Central at this particular time, as we always graduate over 98% of our students, usually 100% and our gaps for our sub-groups are somewhat smaller than what the state shows.
Since we are in the assessment season now, talk with your students about these tests and help them understand the importance of these. These assessments are also a pre-cursor to the required Graduation Exams that are administered as part of the MCA’s in 10th and 11th grades. Thanks for your support.