The Post-Bulletin (Austin, MN) July 1, 2010

HEADLINE: State tests find Austin schools need to work on reading

By Kurt Nesbitt

Austin Public Schools saw its reading scores drop, but its math scores improve in the latest round of comprehensive statewide tests.

The results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in math and reading were released today by the Minnesota Department of Education .

Austin's fourth-graders reached a higher level of reading proficiency than the state average, since 83.3 percent met or exceeded the standard for proficiency where the state average is 77 percent.

So did Austin's seventh-graders, 70.7 percent of whom met or exceeded the standard for proficiency, while the statewide average is 64.4 percent .

For the most part, though, scores for reading and math were below state averages across the seven grade levels that take the test, although the district's scores were generally about 2 percent shy of the state average.

John Alberts, Austin's director of education services, said the district will likely look at its academic interventions to see what caused the slide when officials begin to make plans for the coming school year.

Math scores improved this year because more students are being tested, Alberts said. He said more accommodations are available for English language learners and special education students, who can have the test read to them, so the math test is accessing more of students' abilities than the reading test.

The MCA II scores are a part of the plans that each of the district's schools make every year, Alberts said. The Average Yearly Progress scores are coming at the end of July and those should be the final piece of information that the school district's administrators need to make goals for the coming school year.

"It's one factor that helps inform the site plans. It's a feature, but it's not the only thing," he said.

Overall, testing was done on about 418,000 students in the state's public and charter schools. In August, a report from state education officials is expected on the progress of schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Nearly half of all public and private schools in Minnesota were on the 2009 list of underperforming schools.