For the second straight year, low-income students in the Minneapolis Public Schools fared better than the ones who were bused to suburban schools under the Choice is Yours, a voluntary desegregation program.
Minneapolis students in the district nearly doubled their test scores in reading and finished practically even in math compared with their suburban counterparts last year, according to results released Monday by the Minnesota Department of Education.
State education officials reasoned that the difference may be because the suburban choice students tested each year are not the same students; only half of the suburban choice students were enrolled in their schools the previous year.
However, Minneapolis officials say their students' results are significant enough to start urging parents to think twice about sending their kids to suburban schools.
"We're just saying if the number one reason parents sent their kids to suburban schools was academics, they need to look closely and carefully at the results," said Dave Heistad, the district's research and testing director. "Just choice by itself doesn't seem to be the answer."
"This illustrates what we have always suspected," said Minneapolis Superintendent Bill Green. "Whatever frustration people have felt about the Minneapolis schools is based on a sense that we have so much potential and we haven't been able to mine it.
"This data shows that kids don't have to go far away from home to get a quality education," Green said.
Assistant Education Commissioner Karen Klinzing said Monday the results do not "raise a red flag at this point" because the program still provides access for low-income Minneapolis students to attend suburban schools.