Robbinsdale District Reacts to Test Scores

Editor's Note: The following content was provided by the Robbinsdale School District.

Although the Multiple Measurement Ratings (MMR) came out from the Minnesota Department of Education on Tuesday, Robbinsdale Area Schools were not anxious about them. The ratings are based upon the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) data from 2010 and 2011, and when the data first came out, the district analyzed where it needed to improve and acted upon it immediately. Robbinsdale Area Schools has spent the last two years implementing best practices to improve student achievement, and that effort is paying off.

The district uses the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) to measure the achievement growth of its students, because the assessment has a higher ceiling (meaning students that achieve at high levels can still show growth) and because it has detailed information about various strands in math and reading. The assessment is also a reliable predictor of future achievement on the MCAs, the test the state uses in calculating Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and MMR.

Despite being identified as a Focus School, in two years Meadow Lake Elementary has seen a seventeen percentage point rise in the number of students who made at least average growth on the math MAP. The school has realized a thirteen percentage point rise in reading growth in the same two years. Lakeview and Northport Elementary Schools were identified as Priority Schools.

However, since 2010, Northport has seen a twenty percentage point increase in students making at least average growth on the reading MAP, and a fourteen percentage point increase for math. Lakeview Elementary has experienced a 29 percentage point increase in students making at least average growth on their reading MAP assessment nearly a third more, and has experienced a 25 percentage point increase in math. All three schools have more than average numbers of students making growth in both math and reading, as do all elementary schools in the district.

This is a phenomenal increase in growth, due to the district emphasis on professional learning communities, the creation of common formative assessments, a focus on equity, the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) and the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Every elementary school in the district substantially increased the percentage of students making growth on the MAP for both math and reading over the two years that the state is using to calculate the MMR.

Unfortunately, the new state ratings system did not use data from 2011-2012, the same year that Robbinsdale Area elementary and middle schools saw their greatest growth. That 2012 data will be used later on. “We knew by our 2010 data that we needed to improve, and we’ve taken deliberate and specific measures to do just that,” explained Aldo Sicoli, Superintendent. “Our schools have done some great things in a short amount of time and our staff and our families should be very proud of the growth that our students have experienced.”

Although all schools in the state will receive an MMR, only schools receiving Title I schools are considered for identification as Priority, Focus and Reward Schools.