Math scores on the biggest statewide exam have plummeted for six straight years, troubling some education officials and teachers — and prompting deep discussions about how to teach math in a more holistic way.
Last year, just 55% of students met state standards on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, or MCAs, a slide of six percentage points in just over a decade. The decline spans all racial groups, and has diverged from the trend in reading scores, which have largely remained flat.
But many education leaders say the sobering statistics don't tell the full story of Minnesota students' performance in math.
Some fault the test itself, calling it an outdated metric that doesn't fully capture the lessons and progress students are making in the classroom. Others blame math anxiety experienced by many students and made worse by a growing fatigue from standardized testing.
The real measures of math competency, they say, can be found elsewhere: on Minnesota's competitive performance on the math portion of the ACT college entrance exam, in students' preparedness for college and the workforce, and in their ability to think critically to solve all kinds of problems.
Whatever the reason for the test-score slide, it comes at a time when both state and local education leaders are actively trying to overhaul the way math is taught and learned in the state's schools.
In her first year on the job, state Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker said she's sought to meet with math teachers to find out what's working in the classroom and what needs to change. Ricker said Minnesota needs to focus on math in the same way it's begun to do with reading, making it a subject students, families and teachers see as essential to success in school and in life — not just as a series of problems on a test.
"Part of the new conversation I wanted to start is to change the perception of math being [something that] either you're good at or you're not," Ricker said. "Let's say: 'I work hard at math.' Let's talk about persistence. I want to be part of a conversation that shows that math is all around us."