08/30/12Minnesota Imposes New Labels on Schools
Minneapolis Star Tribune (08/30/12) McGuire, Kim; Brandt, Steve
Minneapolis Star Tribune (08/30/12) McGuire, Kim; Brandt, SteveMinnesota officials announced that 213 schools would be subject to new state Multiple Measurement Ranking (MMR) labels and corrective actions. These schools were listed as underperforming and will receive federal Title I money to address higher levels of poverty. Schools received one of five designations: Reward, Celebration, Continuous Improvement, Focus, and Priority. The schools will have to submit turnaround plans to the state, though they will no longer have to provide tutoring or transfers or face stiffer penalties. State Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius says, "Some will look at this with a healthy dose of skepticism, but it's really giving educators a whole new level of data to assess students and gives them a much better idea about where to focus improvement efforts." Student scores in math and reading were taken into account and combined with academic growth of individual students, graduation rates, and the achievement gap between middle-class white students and their classmates. Statewide, minority and poor students and those learning English demonstrated better academic growth in math in 2012 than in 2011, according to new data, but they were not closing achievement gaps in reading. Cassellius says she is optimistic that new incentives to get students reading well before third grade will pay off. "Today's data shows that we're starting to bend the curve in the right direction. Minnesota's achievement gaps are still unacceptably large, but I believe the new accountability measures we've put in place, along with our new focus on closing gaps and improving outcomes for every student, will continue to accelerate gains we see today," she says.
