Schools chalk up a year of big gains

Norman Draper and James Walsh, Star Tribune

Minnesota students showed big gains in test scores this year, allowing scores of schools to escape federal penalties and creating an almost celebratory atmosphere in state education circles.

In what was likely the biggest public disgorging of Minnesota school information at one time, state education officials Monday released testing data for five grades in reading and math, plus state report cards, plus the list of underperforming schools required by federal law.

All grade levels showed improvement in both subject areas.

"It really is fantastic news for Minnesota," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who, along with Education Commissioner Alice Seagren, announced the results at the State Fair. "Every type of school and student has improved performance in Minnesota."

Crunching all the grades together, a Star Tribune analysis of the numbers showed 79 percent of students tested statewide scoring at a "proficient" level in reading, up from 73 percent last year. In math, 76 percent posted "proficient" scores, up from 70 percent last year. As a result, many schools were able to meet testing goals mandated by the controversial federal No Child Left Behind law. Overall, 247 schools were tagged as not making their No Child Left Behind testing goals -- called "adequate yearly progress"-- in 2005. That's down from 464 in 2004.

Those results were helped by an easing of the federal testing requirements in several areas. But it still means that educators' fears that more schools would get penalized each year for failing to meet their goals have yet to materialize.

Adding to the good news, the "achievement gap" that separates higher-performing white students from poorer students of color narrowed this year.

And there were big improvements in Minneapolis and St. Paul districts, which have many of the schools tagged as needing improvement under No Child Left Behind. In Minneapolis, 53 schools are on the No Child Left Behind "needs improvement" list, compared with 77 last year. In St. Paul, 31 are on the list, compared with 44 last year. The list includes schools that made annual progress this year but need another year's improvement to get off the list.

Making the test score gains even more impressive, officials said, is the fact that the goals rise every year.

"Obviously, I'm very ecstatic today," said Minneapolis Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles, who had to keep mum about the test results until Monday's official release. "I didn't think I could ever have been able to hold a secret like that, but I did it."

In St. Paul, where some schools posted gains of more than 30 points in the percentage of children scoring "proficient," Superintendent Patricia Harvey was beaming.

"I couldn't be more pleased with the progress our individual schools are making and with the progress of our students," she said. "It just shows that when you all work together, the kids just deliver."

Harvey credited intensive work on staff development and instruction and more decision-making at the school level for the improved performance.

Helpful changes

Officials acknowledged, however, that federal rule changes -- rather than test scores -- allowed some schools to avoid being branded as underperforming.

For example, this time schools could average their scores over two or three years, rather than depend on a single year's results. "That demonstrates that we're not dinging somebody for a year that might be an anomaly," Seagren said.

Schools also won flexibility in counting groups such as students learning English. Schools this year didn't have to count the scores of students in English language programs unless they tested at least 40 students; last year the limit was 20. The result: 119 fewer schools were listed as underperforming based on the scores of students learning English.

While Pawlenty acknowledged the impact of the rule changes, he stressed that accounted for just "a chunk" of the improvement. The changes did not affect the facts that students' test scores went up and that more students were scoring in the "proficient" range, he noted.

The No Child Left Behind sanctions, which range from mandated tutoring to complete school makeovers, only apply to schools that get lots of federal funding for poor students. For others, the underperforming tag can still be an embarrassment.

"We talk about it all the time," said Rhoda Mhiripiri, principal of Champlin Park High School, which improved enough to be taken off the "needs improvement" list this year, but faced no penalties. "We have an enrollment of 3,250. That's a lot of kids and a lot of families depending on us for a quality education and not being associated with anything that could be negative."

'It's working'

Pawlenty said this year's improved test scores showed that the No Child Left Behind law is working.

"I think there are some things that need to be adjusted in No Child Left Behind, but overall it's working," he said. "We should not back away from it. We should embrace it. It's showing good results."

Pawlenty also saw the results as support for his efforts to let schools pay teachers on the basis of their performance, rather than college credits and years on the job. He singled out several schools now experimenting with alternative teacher pay plans for improved performance he termed "remarkable."

The Waseca School District, which is using an alternative teacher pay plan funded by a private grant, did show test score gains that outpaced the state averages. Results for several Minneapolis schools using the same plan, however, were more mixed.

Waseca Superintendent Jim Schmitt said the district plan, which allows some teachers to earn more by helping to train their colleagues and identifying teaching problem areas, has a big impact on students' test scores. For instance, Schmitt said, teachers were able to identify vocabulary as a problem area at Hartley Elementary School.

"By making it a schoolwide effort I think it had a strong impact on students," Schmitt said.

Despite the general lovefest over the improved scores, some still raised concerns about the tests. Judy Schaubach, president of the Education Minnesota teachers union, said test results still come too slowly to help teachers make improvements in the classroom. Next week when school starts in most districts, most students will move on to the next grade and new teachers.

"The state data still doesn't get back in time to do much with it," she said.

Kay Joyce, principal of Burnsville High School, which is on the underperforming schools list but doesn't face penalties, said it can be hard to get students to take the tests seriously since they don't have a bearing on academic standing or college admissions.

"We can do a better job there," she said.

This year Minnesota tested students in third, fifth, seventh, 10th and 11th grades. Next year, fourth, sixth and eighth grades will be added. The tests, called the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, are different from the Basic Standards Tests taken by Minnesota eighth-graders. Also released Monday were individual school report cards. Those contain information about school test scores, staffing, safety, academic opportunities, and, for the first time this year, budget information for each school.

The writers are at

ndraper@startribune.com and jwalsh@startribune.com.

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