By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

The work of math teachers in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District has paid off as test scores improved in all grade levels in the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA-II).

“Over time, our math test scores have been increasing ever since we developed strong professional development support (in 2005,)” said Assistant Superintendent Sandi Novak.

But in reading, five of the seven grade levels tested, 2009 proficiency percentages declined from 2008 scores.

Math

In math, the biggest jump was in fifth grade where the proficiency rate was 76.6 percent, compared to 67.9 percent in 2008. The scores were also 11.1 percent higher than the state average.

That particular class, Novak said, is one both the district and researchers have an eye on as it was Burnsville-Eagan-Savage’s first and only free all-day kindergarten class.

“They continue to perform at higher levels, more significantly in math than in reading,” Novak said.

In fact, the reading scores in fifth grade dropped 2.7 percent from 78.6 percent in 2008 to 75.9 percent this year.

In District 191 elementary schools in Savage, the results varied in fifth-grade math. Students in both M.W. Savage and Harriet Bishop elementary schools tested better than the district average at 89.7 percent and 82.1 percent, respectively. At the district’s largest elementary school, Hidden Valley, students were below the district average at 68.9 percent.

Another significant increase over last year’s scores was in the 11th-grade math exam where 46.4 percent passed, an increase of 6.4 percent. Coincidentally, that was also the district’s lowest proficiency percentage across all grade levels in either math or reading.

While the overall number may appear grim with fewer than half of tested students making the cut, the score is higher than the statewide average of 41.6 percent proficient.

“To have higher averages than the state must mean we’re doing something more beneficial for our students,” Novak said.

When the test was administered this spring, juniors were told in order to graduate from high school they would have to pass a portion of the exam called the GRAD portion. However, that has since changed and students now have two more opportunities to pass. If both of those attempts are failed and a student participated in remediation, they will still be eligible for a diploma.

Students at Cedar Alternative Center have the same standards as the rest of their classmates at Burnsville High School. There, only two of the 36 juniors, or 5.6 percent, tested at a proficient level.

“There are more at-risk students at that site. … Naturally you’re going to have more students that are not going to be as successful. There are more free- and reduced-lunch students there. A free- and reduced-lunch count attributes to reduced student achievement,” Novak said. “It’s just going to take additional strategies, additional intervention and instruction for these kids to be successful.”

The seventh-grade class had mixed proficiency results as their math scores were up 5.5 percent, but reading scores were down 4.8 percent.

Novak said the transition out of elementary school into junior high school can account for some of that change.

“Research shows when kids make transitions they will take a dip in achievement,” she said. “That’s not an excuse; it’s just that we have to look at that trend more closely.”

Reading

When compared to state averages, the district’s proficiency scores in reading in grades three, four, five, six, eight and 10 – 76.9 percent, 73.4 percent, 75.9 percent, 77 percent, 65.6 percent, and 77.6 percent, respectively -- were significantly better or around 1 percent lower.

Grade seven, however was much lower than the state average of 64.8 percent at 59.9 percent proficient in District 191.

Eagle Ridge Junior High School seventh graders were lower than the district average at 57.6 percent.

“How is the district doing as a whole? We’re doing well, but we can always do better,” said Novak.

The next step when looking at MCA-II test scores is to look over the freshly-accrued data and determine what each grade level is doing and what the teachers are doing or not doing to improve scores.

MCA-II test score results are used, in part, to help determine Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, to meet federal guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act. AYP determines federal funding and District 191 has failed to meet AYP for the past five years.

AYP scores will be released Aug. 10.

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com