Dramatic drops in proficiency on statewide math and reading tests are the latest evidence that school disruptions related to the coronavirus have set students back in their learning.
Proficiency rates fell 11 percentage points in math, to 44 percent, according to Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments results released Friday by the state education department. Reading proficiency is down 7 points in reading, to 53 percent, since 2019.
“The statewide assessment results confirm what we already knew — that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our students’ learning and they need our help to recover,” Education Commissioner Heather Mueller said.
The Trump administration let states cancel their spring 2020 tests as the pandemic began to take hold and schools transitioned to distance learning. This year, some school districts and states got partial waivers from the Biden administration, but Minnesota largely tried to administer its tests as usual.
However, state data shows only around 77 percent of eligible Minnesota students completed their tests — down from the usual 98 percent. St. Paul and Minneapolis, among the last districts to bring students back to school after a year of distance learning, saw about half of their students complete tests.
LOW TEST PARTICIPATION RATE IN ST. PAUL
Stacey Gray Akyea, research director for St. Paul Public Schools, said the district’s low test participation rates cast doubt on how much they can learn from the data.
“We’re still doing some of those analyses to see if we can generalize across student groups,” she said.
Nonetheless, the district will be taking a close look at the results to understand “where students are now as we come into the fall,” she said, and “how far are they from where they normally would have been.”
Although the MCAs were administered, the results won’t be used to identify which low-performing schools get support from the state. The Biden administration in April granted Minnesota a waiver from that and other accountability requirements.
That means schools that made the low-performing list in 2018 will get one extra year of support. The new list will come out next year and will be based on the MCAs and other metrics from the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years.
WORSE OUTCOMES FOR SOME
Similar to the disparate health outcomes seen in the general population during the pandemic, MCA data indicates people of color are suffering disproportionate academic harm, too.
The proficiency rate on the math MCA for white students dropped by 19 percent, compared to 34 percent for both Black and Hispanic students. Pass rates for English language learners dropped by 48 percent.
White students also saw the smallest decline in the share of students who completed the tests. That’s likely because more classrooms were open in rural areas, while more diverse metro districts waited to reopen their schools and couldn’t get parents to drive their children to school to take the tests.
Because white students are the highest performers on the MCAs, the state’s overall proficiency rates would have been even worse had all demographic groups taken the tests at the same rate. The average also got a boost from a huge decline in the number of high schoolers testing, as they post lower scores than other grades.
‘WHAT’S WORKING AND WHAT WE HAVE TO DO DIFFERENTLY’
Anticipating low scores among students of color, the education nonprofit EdAllies, which advocates for historically underserved students, called Thursday for schools to implement strategies shown to combat learning loss, such as accelerated learning in lieu of remediation, programming before and after school, extended time in school and social-emotional supports.
“We don’t have time to sugarcoat this problem any longer or spend our energy gap-gazing,” Executive Director Josh Crosson said. “Our kids need us to step up and prioritize their learning. We can accelerate their learning in smart and efficient ways; we just have to use data to show us what’s working and what we have to do differently.”
As it released the MCA results Friday, the state education department announced a new initiative called COMPASS, which it says will “support student learning recovery” by meeting students’ academic, social-emotional and mental health needs.
The department will offer details later this fall on training and coaching opportunities around best practices, data analysis and a framework for meeting individual students’ academic and/or behavioral needs.