Minnesota students will continue to take state tests, but the way that schools are graded will change dramatically under a new plan outlined Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Education.
The new plan would take full effect in the 2018-19 school year. It replaces the ratings and labels given to public schools based on their performance with one that focuses on the lowest-performing 5 percent of Title 1-funded schools. It also would identify high schools with a graduation rate below 67 percent or where any student group — black, Asian, Latino or low-income, for example — falls below a 67 percent graduation rate.
Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) officials say the whole accountability system will work toward closing the achievement gap.
"You can't get away with just knocking it out of the park for your white kids," Josh Collins, department spokesman, said. "A lot of those schools have not been evaluated in that way. There will be schools showing up ... who are not used to that."
But a coalition of 18 advocacy organizations including the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership and the YWCA sent a letter to Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius saying the new approach sets the bar too low.
"It is possible for a school to not improve at all despite receiving support, but for other schools to perform worse, and for the school to still be exited from support," the letter reads.
The draft released Tuesday is part of the nationwide changeover from the decade-old federal No Child Left Behind law to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) signed in 2015.
The act is intended to give states more power and freedom in decisionmaking.