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By Rachel Kytonen
rachel.kytonen@ecm-inc.com
While there was some positive news to report regarding the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, Susan Burris, Director of Teaching and Learning for the Cambridge-Isanti School District, said it also shows continued work needs to be done.
During the District 911 School Board meeting Thursday, July 22, Burris presented a detailed report regarding the district’s MCA II reading and math test scores.
Burris said as a district in reading, representing all grade levels tested, the district was 1.68 percent above the state average.
By grade level: The district was 1.09 percent above the state average in grade 3; 2.3 percent below the state average in grade 4; 5.29 percent below the state average in grade 5; 4.53 percent above the state average in grade 6; 6.7 percent above the state average in grade 7; 4.9 percent above the state average in grade 8 and 2.16 percent above the state average in grade 10.
“This trend shows we need to do continued research,” Burris said. “We need to look at current research and materials. The teachers are doing the best they can with the materials we have.”
As a district, the students math test scores were 3.21 percent below the state average.
By grade level: The district was .84 percent below the state average in grade 3; 3.7 percent below the state average in grade 4; 9.11 percent below the state average in grade 5; 3.16 percent below the state average in grade 6; 2.06 percent below the state average in grade 7; 3.56 above the state average in grade 8 and 9.38 percent below the state average in grade 11.
As far as math scores, Burris said most of the scores were expected.
“Some of this is not surprising, but we need to hit it head-on,” Burris said. “We did increase our scores by three percent at the high school, and we need to keep that going in that direction. If we do that, I think we are going to make some large gains.”
Superintendent Bruce Novak noted when looking at the breakdown by each school, levels 3 and 4 are deemed proficient. However, he noted the data doesn’t reflect a student may have missed scoring at level 3 by just a few points.
“We may have had a large group of students in level 2, but they may have just missed level 3 by a couple of questions; this report doesn’t show that,” Novak said.
Burris noted as a district, it didn’t make Adequate Yearly Progress.
CIHS didn’t make AYP, and is in its third year of Safe Harbor. Burris explained Safe Harbor means the district has shown an increase in student improvement, and gives the district three years to improve the areas of concern.
She said the district’s K-5 buildings didn’t make AYP, and Isanti and Cambridge Intermediate Schools also didn’t make AYP.
Burris explained the primary schools automatically get the same status as the intermediate schools, since they are their “feeder” school.
“K-2 automatically doesn’t make AYP if the intermediate school they feed into doesn’t make it,” Burris said. “All elementary schools will have to write improvement plans this year.”
Burris was pleased to report that the Minnesota Center and Isanti Middle School did make AYP in all areas.
As far as graduation tests—test calculated on the basic requirements for graduation only—the district was 1.59 percent above the state average in the 9th grade writing test; 2.95 percent above the state average in the 10th grade reading test and 12.18 below the state average in the 11th grade math test.
Of the 9th grade writing graduation test, 92.17 percent of the students passed the test. Burris noted she was especially pleased because it was the students first time taking the test.
Of the 10th grade reading graduation test, 81 percent of the students tested passed the test.
Of the 11th grade math graduation test, 45.65 percent of the students passed the test, compared to the state average of 57.83 percent.
Burris noted this was the first time the 11th-graders have taken the test, and said the results the district had were common across the state.
“A lot of schools are struggling to get to the state average of 58 percent,” Burris said.
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