The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) released the 2009 math and reading test results for Minnesota schools last week. The MDE said the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments – Series II (MCA-II) results remained steady from 2008 to 2009 for most grades.
Pipestone County schools showed test results that were, for the most part, at or above state levels.
As a whole, PAS students were 69.7 percent proficient in math and 72 percent proficient in reading; Edgerton scored 62 percent in math, 67.9 percent in reading; and Russel-Tyler-Ruthton students scored the highest with 73.8 percent in math and 85.4 percent in reading.
Statewide results were 64.3 percent proficiency in math and 71.9 percent in reading.
The results also showed steadily declining proficiency numbers in correlation with increasing grade levels. PAS results for example, showed 92.1 percent proficiency in third grade math and 86 percent proficiency in third grade reading. Tenth grade math results show 77.2 percent proficiency in tenth grade reading and only 54.4 percent proficiency in eleventh grade math.
The results also showed that much improvement is necessary to achieve the mandatory 100 percent proficiency level that is required by No Child Left Behind by 2014.
To achieve 100 percent proficiency, every student who takes the test must achieve a score that either meets or exceeds the test standards. Those standards define what students should know and be able to do at each grade level as determined by the MDE in partnership with Minnesota educators.
The reading test is administered to each student in grades three through eight, and then again in grade 10. The math test is administered to grades three through eight and then again in grade 11.
More than 500,000 Minnesota students took the tests in 2009.
To see all the results for the entire state, go to education.state.mn.us.
For more on the results in Pipestone County, including reaction, see the July 16 issue of the Pipestone County Star.
