St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota) June 30, 2009

HEADLINE: Minnesota students' slight gains on tests won't keep schools off 'watch list'

By Megan Boldt

Minnesota students made slight gains on statewide achievement tests this year, with juniors' math scores increasing the most.

That's according to math and reading scores, which are being released today by the state Department of Education. The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments were given to about 501,000 students in grades three through eight, 10 and 11.

The state uses the tests to measure students' progress toward proficiency in reading and math, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Forty-two percent of juniors tested proficient in math, an 8-percentage-point increase from last year.

State education officials suspect juniors were motivated to do better on the test because passing it was a graduation requirement. But about a month after it was administered this spring, lawmakers decided to allow students to graduate without passing the math test for the next five years. Legislators feared the test was too difficult and would leave thousands without diplomas.

Since 2005, Minnesota has ramped up math instruction, including better training of teachers, said Chas Anderson, the state's deputy education commissioner.

"We're very pleased to see some of these efforts bear some strong results in math," Anderson said.

Achievement Gap / Test results continue to show a wide achievement gap between most students of color and their white peers.

That gap is particularly apparent in reading -- and in some cases, the disparities have grown in four years.

For example, about 66 percent of Hispanic third-grade students were proficient in reading in 2006, compared with 86 percent of whites. This year, 59 percent of Hispanic students were proficient, compared with 85 percent of whites.

In math, the achievement gap has shrunk somewhat in the lower grades.

About 70 percent of Hispanic third-grade students were proficient in math this year, up from 53 percent in 2006. About 87 percent of white third-grade students were proficient this year, up from 84 percent. But those gains start to taper off in the middle school years.

"Our efforts really need to be focused in those middle grades, so we can decrease those gaps," Anderson said. "We also need to replicate those math results to reading as well."

Is It Attainable? / Minnesota's students' slight gains in test scores won't be enough to keep an increasing number of schools off the "watch list," which will be released in August.

The state education department will use the test scores to create a list of schools where students failed to meet reading and math standards. This is required under No Child Left Behind, which requires all U.S. students to be proficient in those subjects by 2014.

Last year, 933 schools of 1,947 fell short of reading and math standards. That was up from 724 in 2007.

The growing list is no surprise to educators and experts who have argued No Child Left Behind's goals are unattainable.

A 2004 report by the state legislative auditor estimated that 80 to 100 percent of Minnesota's school districts would not meet the expectations of No Child Left Behind.

That's troubling, especially for a state that posts some of the highest graduation rates and college-entrance exam scores in the nation, said Mark Davison, a University of Minnesota professor in educational psychology.

"Virtually all schools will be on the list. They're making gains, but they're chasing a moving target," Davison said. "The U.S. Department of Education, they set up goals that were really ideals rather than realistic goals."

No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization in Congress. State education officials, politicians and experts say the legislation will likely be revised in President Obama's first term, but not anytime in the near future.

Davison said he would like to see the system focus on the growth and progress schools are making on performance measures, so other schools can learn from their achievements.

"One of the biggest flaws of this accountability system is we have an emphasis on failure. We should have an emphasis on excellent schools," he said. "We want to encourage schools to excel, not to just avoid failure."