New test score data shows ongoing disparities, learning struggles among Minnesota students

CATHY WURZER: Our lead story-- Minnesota released some new school test score data this morning, and the results are not great. Education reporter Elizabeth Shockman is here to tell us more. Hey, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Hey, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: So I know we got some more bad news this morning about test scores. It looks like student mastery on math, reading, science, all still struggling after the pandemic. What's going on?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: That's right. Scores in math, reading, and science are all down 10 percentage points compared to 2019, or before the pandemic. These are numbers we're getting from the MCAs, or Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, which are annual tests that students take in the spring throughout the state. Participation in these tests in many areas is still down a bit compared to before the pandemic, so that's something that affects the results we see in some places.

But yeah, what we're seeing is only about half of Minnesota public school students are meeting or exceeding the state's grade level standards in reading and math. Reading scores went down this year, and math went up slightly. But overall, it's pretty discouraging results.

CATHY WURZER: How do Minnesota's scores compare to the rest of the country?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: If you look at the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation's report card, you see plunging achievement on math and reading throughout the country. Minnesota's students did score higher than students in other states in math and slightly higher in reading in the most recent of those national exams. I would add, of course, that the MCAs are not the only way Minnesota tracks how students are doing.

The state education department also pays attention to graduation rates, which are starting to go up again, by the way. And they track student well-being with surveys. The most recent survey data that we have, which is from 2022, shows a concerning percentage of students struggle with their mental health.

Nearly a third of Minnesota's students that responded to that survey said that they were struggling with long term mental health problems, higher than at any other time in the history of the survey which began in 1989. Pretty ubiquitously as I report, as I have been reporting over the last couple of years, the students, teachers, and school leaders I speak to point to student and educator stress and mental health struggles after the pandemic as being not only an urgent concern, but inextricably linked to student learning.

Many districts are focusing on student mental health. If students don't feel OK, and healthy, and safe, it's not possible for them to learn.

CATHY WURZER: So I know you've been talking to districts this summer about student learning. What are you hearing from them?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: So many of the districts I've been in touch with are paying a lot of attention to student attendance and engagement, which has been down. And that is actually reflected in the state data. Data from the 2021 to 2022 school year, so that's the most recent we have available, shows attendance has plunged from 85% of students in class at least 90% of the time to just under 70% of students consistently attending.

The districts I've been in touch with have noticed a pretty strong correlation between consistent attendance, improved learning, and higher test scores. So some places are planning a renewed emphasis on attendance this year. Others are focusing on ways to make students feel welcome. One district I spoke to is putting a lot of energy into their extracurricular programs as a way to keep students excited about coming to school and keep them connected to teachers and friends.

CATHY WURZER: So I understand, Elizabeth, that education commissioner Willie Jett took some time, talked about these test scores this morning. What did he say?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: That's right. The commissioner spent a lot of time talking about solutions that state leaders are focused on. Here's a bit of what he had to say.

WILLIE JETT: The achievement data clearly reflect the need for the investments Governor Walz and legislators made in education during the legislative session. Their efforts to target improved literacy through the Read Act and the funding that accompanied this effort is well timed and necessary.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: So one of the things that he mentioned there is the Read Act. That's something that lawmakers passed in this most recent session. It includes requirements that kindergarteners through third graders be taught phonics and decoding. There's money to help districts purchase new curriculum in line with these methods, as well as train their teachers in what's known as structured literacy. There's a lot of hope that this new approach to teaching reading will go a long way in helping students become better readers, which hopefully will start showing up in test scores.

CATHY WURZER: So I know you talked earlier this spring to districts who were some of the early adopters of this new reading curriculum and the structured literacy approach that you talked about. Are they seeing any results?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: So the districts I was in touch with only had partial and preliminary results from a few kindergarten and early elementary classrooms where they had changed the way that they were teaching kids to read. What they said is that those preliminary results were both encouraging and significant. I think that the hope is over the next few years as these new methods are implemented, that teachers, parents, and students will start to see improved reading proficiency.

But I'd make a few other notes about that. The first is that the district I spoke to about implementing these reading changes told me that changing curriculum, this huge curriculum change, as well as training teachers, was a lot of work and took a lot of time. Teachers already have a huge amount of work on their plates.

The district I spoke to said that it would be really hard to make sort of a big push on anything else on top of that focus on reading. So I think that's something to keep in mind. Schools are juggling a lot as students return to classrooms this fall.

CATHY WURZER: Elizabeth, we appreciate the information. Thank you so much.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Elizabeth Shockman is our education reporter. Well, what are some Minnesota school districts doing about these stagnant test scores, as you heard from Elizabeth? Joining us right now is Donna Roper, the Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment, and Information Systems with the Saint Cloud area schools. Donna, welcome to the program.

DONNA ROPER: Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: How much, Donna, should the public read into these test results? They don't look that great.

DONNA ROPER: Well, I think on the one hand, I would say we want to remember that this is a snapshot. And I don't I don't think it's wise for us to say we don't want to pay attention to it. We absolutely do want to pay attention to these results.

They are one indicator for our systems to pay attention to and understand. But what's really important is taking this data, along with other data, contextualizing it in our school environments and in our classrooms so that we're really making sure we're meeting the needs of the learners we have in front of us.

Many students experienced the pandemic in a variety of ways. And because of that, they're coming into us with a variety of needs-- some of them with needs that we've not had to deal with before. And so it's really important that we are looking at our local data, that we are taking that and turning it into useful information that we can act on so that we're moving learners towards success and growth in math, and reading, and science, but also in becoming curious, and self-reflective, and well children.

CATHY WURZER: There's a lot to parse here, but let's go back to the test results for just a moment here. There are some schools in the Saint Cloud district that are seeing proficiency rates as low as 26%. You talk about students struggling, and it looks like middle schoolers appear to be struggling the most. Why might that be? Is it all about the pandemic?

DONNA ROPER: Well, I think our middle school learners did experience a little bit of a socialization slide, if you will. When kids don't have the opportunity to come into spaces together-- we know that learning happens through some of that peer socialization, and so our younger learners did have an impact from not having the opportunity to be together when they're learning. We know from the research that learning improves when we're together.

And so continuing to help students enter back into our schools and our settings in a right frame of mind for learning is really important. It's why we're working a lot on social emotional learning skills.

CATHY WURZER: Donna, as you know, test participation rates are dropping. And I'm wondering how that skews some of these results.

DONNA ROPER: So I think, especially at the secondary, you will see a drop in participation rates at our high schools. And some of that has to do, we think, with how students and families view the relevance of our high school MCAs. But in terms of how we view it as an impact on our systems, I think we're still having enough participation to see some relevance in the feedback that we're getting in our MCAs-- maybe not so much at high school, but for sure in the third grade through eighth grade tested grade levels.

CATHY WURZER: Researchers, as you know, have seen a link between lower MCA test scores and student attendance rates. I know that some of the scores and some of the data reflect a fairly low attendance rate in some schools. What is Saint Cloud doing about attendance rates and trying to improve them?

DONNA ROPER: So we have a large initiative around attendance this year. We're working very closely with school staff and what we call our MTSS teams to track [INAUDIBLE] We do know that when kids are in attendance and staff are in attendance, the learning is going to happen in a better way, right? So I think you will see a lot of school districts moving towards really monitoring attendance more closely, trying to figure out what are the barriers to getting kids in attendance and moving around their local data to meet those needs.

CATHY WURZER: Finally, Elizabeth mentioned this in her report, and I think you'd probably agree, that students are struggling with mental health issues, right? You can't learn if you aren't feeling OK, if you're not feeling safe. And I'm wondering what does it mean to feel safe, to have a student feel safe? And what is your district doing about that?

DONNA ROPER: So I think kids always need to feel safe in order to learn. That is just foundational. Making sure that students have a high sense of belonging is really important. And understanding where students have mental health needs is really important.

In the Saint Cloud area schools, we've been doing a lot of work on mental health for a number of years. And this year, we will continue some of that work and look to extend it even into our what we call tier one general ed classrooms to really understand what our kids need in terms of mental health supports and SEL, if you will, social emotional learning supports.

We know kids have to feel safe. We'll be implementing some new protocols around the ways in which our adults are responding for consistency and for clarity so people are clear on what we do in certain situations with learners. But our teachers have had to learn a lot about things that they haven't had to be really upskilled on before the pandemic. And so we're taking the time to invest in making sure our teachers have the learning and the supports that they need to meet kids where they are, and especially as it relates to mental health, social emotional learning needs.

CATHY WURZER: Donna, I wish I had more time with you. Thank you so very much. I appreciate the time that you gave us today.

DONNA ROPER: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Donna Roper is the Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment, and Information Systems with the Saint Cloud area schools.