Another Year of Mediocrity for Minnesota’s Public Schools

Today the Star Tribune reported on the most recent student test scores in Minnesota. The results were typical of past years: the performance of Minnesota’s public schools is mediocre, and in some cases, poor.

New statewide test results reveal a familiar tale of woe for Minnesota schools: No improvements in math and reading, nor in the state’s stubborn achievement gap.

“Frustrating,” Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius termed it in a statement Monday.

Not so frustrating, of course, that the education bureaucracy plans to make any significant changes.

Minnesota’s white/minority achievement gap is among the largest in the country, and it isn’t getting any smaller:

Five years ago, Minnesota set an ambitious goal of cutting the achievement gap in half by 2017. But in the four years since it introduced a tough new reading test, the gaps in results between white and minority students statewide have barely budged in reading and math, and widened in math in both St. Paul and Minneapolis.

This chart shows that the performance of Minnesota’s public schools hasn’t changed in more than a decade:

The public schools are rolling out another new plan that will be accompanied by new slogans:

Last week, state education officials rolled out their new school accountability plan to take full effect in the 2018-19 school year. Officials view the act as a way to tackle test scores and the achievement gap.

Of course, the teachers’ union remains adamantly opposed to any reform that has a chance of making a real difference, like school choice. Expect Minnesota’s public schools to continue following the same practices as in the past, and to get the same results.