New statewide test results reveal a familiar tale of woe for Minnesota schools: No improvements in math and reading, nor in the state's stubborn achievement gap.
"Frustrating," Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius termed it in a statement Monday.
Five years ago, Minnesota set an ambitious goal of cutting the achievement gap in half by 2017. But in the four years since it introduced a tough new reading test, the gaps in results between white and minority students statewide have barely budged in reading and math, and widened in math in both St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Cassellius cautioned that test scores are "just one part of the picture" in gauging student performance, and expressed hope that the state's plan to provide support to struggling schools under the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will help to close the gaps.
"There's more to providing a student with a well-rounded education than can be seen in a test," she said in comments echoed by Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers' union.
Results for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) showed 59 percent of state students meeting math standards in 2016-17, the same as in 2015-16. In reading, 60 percent of students tested proficient in reading, also the same as in 2015-16.
At Generation Next, a public-private collaborative dedicated to closing the achievement gap for students of color in the Twin Cities, managing director Jonathan May said he had yet to take a full dive into the data. But he added he was concerned about gaps having stayed more or less flat over five years.
"These are unacceptable outcomes and depict the urgent nature of our local disparities," May said.