By Ruth Anne Maddox, Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writers 

The ups and downs of education can be seen in state test results on the math and reading Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA-II) for the three school districts that serve Savage. While some students pushed proficiency levels past state averages, some rankings fall below state standards.

District 719

By and large, Prior Lake-Savage Area School District students surpassed statewide averages.

And not only did students tested top the statewide averages, they also improved upon last year’s scores.

Statewide, the biggest increase in the MCA-II was in 10th-grade reading and the same trend occurred with Prior Lake-Savage Area students, whose scores leapt from 63 percent meeting and exceeding standards in 2007 to 81 percent meeting or exceeding standards in 2008.

An area of concern last year was local 11th-grade math scores, but this year juniors beat the low state average (34 percent proficiency) with a local score of 47 percent. Last year, high school juniors scored above the 2007 state average of 32 percent with 41 percent proficiency at the required levels.

The state attributes the overall low percentage rate of proficiency in 11th-grade math to the fact that the exam is not linked to a graduation requirement. Next year, the test will be linked to graduation, and organizers expect an increase in scores, as they saw in 10th-grade reading.

Statewide, fifth-grade math and sixth-grade reading both increased by about 3 percent. Again, Prior Lake-Savage scores mimicked the state outcomes, with a 3 percent increase in fifth-grade math and an even larger jump of nearly 9 percent in sixth-grade reading.

All other District 719 results increased favorably or remained constant compared to 2007 statewide and local results.

District 191

Forty percent of juniors in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District passed the math MCA-II assessment.

The results are down from last year’s 43 percent who met or exceeded the standards. However, the cumulative 60 percent of 11th-graders not meeting or only partially meeting the math standards in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage District is better than the state-wide 65.6 percent. 

But math doesn’t look grim across the board, as third graders tested very well in math, with 77.7 percent either meeting or exceeding standards.

“We need to expand on the efforts that are working and eliminate the ones that aren’t,” Superintendent Randy Clegg said. “Clearly, taking a quick look at our scores, we’re seeing improvement.”

Reading assessment results for the sophomores, who now must pass the test to graduate, shined with 79 percent proved to be proficient.

Clegg, who received the assessment results on his first day as superintendent, said he plans to look at the raw data aggregates for each of the sub-groups to get a clear picture of what was going on.

He said he hopes to answer, “What does it look like across the district?” and “How can we strengthen the performance of each of the subgroups?”

The tests are administered as part of an assessment for “No Child Left Behind,” which requires all students in the nation to be proficient by 2014. The numbers are used in the calculating of Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, which contributes to federal funding.

Based on the preliminary numbers, the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District will not make AYP in every category for the second year in a row.

“We are seeing growth in our students’ test scores, but not fast enough to meet the rising expectations set for us,” Clegg said. “Every year, the bar is raised and we must continue our efforts to make the progress necessary to improve student achievement across the district.”

Despite the repeated delinquency, there was some improvement in the district. Six elementary schools improved scores that will likely meet the AYP requirements compared to five last year.

Official numbers regarding AYP will be released by the MDE near the end of August.

A total of 10,449 students were tested in District 191. Later this summer, school districts will be sending MCA-II individual student reports to parents explaining their child’s scores.

District 720

For the most part, District 720 showed improvement over last year even if the numbers didn’t match or exceed the levels recorded statewide.

“I’m generally pleased,” said Shakopee Curriculum Director Chris Correa. “We still have pockets that are a trouble spot for us within the district and we will continue to work on that.”

Locally, the 10th-grade reading jump was slightly lower than the state average, where proficiency increased by 7 percent over last year’s state average and just 2 percent over ratings recorded in the district in 2007, producing an overall proficiency rating of 69 percent.

Shakopee’s third-graders had a proficiency rating of 9 percent higher than the state average on math, posting an 89 percent proficiency ranking. This included a 100 percent proficient third grade at Eagle Creek Elementary, which just completed its first year of operation.

Third-graders in Shakopee also were above the state average in reading, with 82 percent meeting or exceeding standards.

Fourth-grade math scores in Shakopee topped the state average of 72 percent by 1 percent and sixth-grade reading scores were on par with students across the state.

“Our schools have made great gains,” said Correa, who pointed out that many of the elementary school results show improvement over last year.

In Shakopee, many of the district’s overall scores fell below the state average but, of those, improvements were noted within the district from the 2007 tests.

For example, fifth- through eighth-grade math scores were lower than the state averages for the 2008 tests, but the scores were between 1 percent and 4 percent better than the Shakopee scores last year. As well, 11th-graders fell below the state average in math by 2.5 percent and below last year’s district proficiency level by 3.5 percent.

Similar results were reported in reading, where fourth-, fifth- and seventh-graders were below the state average this year but posted proficiency ratings 3 percent to 7 percent higher than the 2007 Shakopee scores.

Sixth-graders improved in reading by 3 percent over last year’s local proficiency level, putting them even with that grade level across the state for 2008, while eighth-grade readers dipped below state average by 17 percent with only 49 percent meeting or exceeding test goals.

This year’s eighth-grade reading scores also were lower — by 3 percent — than those recorded for 2007. Correa said the reason for this dip is not currently known since these students, who were last year’s seventh-graders, weighed in just below the 2007 state average at 60 percent.

Eighth-grade reading can sometimes prove more difficult for students as the curriculum advances in the secondary level, she said, but the majority of students does catch up by high school and are able to meet the reading requirements.

A possible explanation to some of the shifts among proficiency levels could stem from changes in demographics from the redrawing of boundary lines and the reconfiguration of grade levels to include a middle school and a junior high school.  

Ruth Anne Maddox, Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt all contributed to this story. Maddox can be reached at rmaddox@swpub.com; Miller can be reached a jmiller@swpub.com; and Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.