9/8/05
Congratulations in order to Minnesota educators, families and students for progress shown in reading, writing and mathematics
by Joe Nathan
Congrats and a hint of caution to Minnesota educators, families and students. Thatís my reaction to the massive dump of education data that occurred this week.
The Minnesota Department of Education told every public school and district whether it was meeting required progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
Most of Minnesotaís public schools met the stateís expectations for progress. The Minnesota Department of Education noted that the number of schools on the ìneeds improvement listî dropped from ì464 schools in 2004 (1,969 schools measured) to 247 schools in 2005 (1,975 schools measured), a nearly 50 percent reduction.î
So, where does the caution come in? There are two reasons.
First, we know that everything important about a school isnít measured by standardized, pencil and paper tests. Itís important to look at other factors. These include school safety; percentage of students involved in extra curricular activities, which have been proven enormously valuable, sometimes throughout a personís life; and experiences of high school graduates.
That leads to the second caution. Next week Iíll be writing about a major Minnesota report on the number and percentage of Minnesota public high school graduates who need to take remedial courses when entering public colleges and universities. Some of the results are really startling.
For the time being, however, letís give credit where itís due ñ and thatís clearly to many Minnesota educators, students and families. Thereís plenty to be proud of in your schools.
Joe Nathan, a former public school teacher, now directs the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota.
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