Fewer than half of Minnesota students are meeting math, reading standards, test scores say

New statewide student test scores show most Minnesota kids are not making the grade.

Right now, fewer than half of Minnesota students are meeting the standard in math and reading and just 25% in science.

"We want to be a prominent state that is making sure that our kids can read and do math and do science at grade level and right now the scores that we're seeing are not getting us there," said Josh Crosson, executive director for Ed Allies, an education advocacy organization. "We need to take these scores seriously. It's our only apples-to-apples comparison on how kids are doing."

Crosson believes one thing the state can do is to get those test scores out fast to help the students keep up.

"We gotta get this information out more timely. It needs to be actionable, and it needs to be transparent for parents. So understanding how their kids are doing and then what they can do next with that information," he said. "Kids deserve that information, parents deserve to know how their kids are doing based on Minnesota state standards. We can't lose that information."

Crosson is going to be part of a new 28-member task force to help review the current system. The purpose of the task force, he says, is to consider whether statewide assessments are providing the most important information to understand learning and instructional practice.

Another goal for the task force would be to help alleviate concerns parents and teachers have about standardized testing.

"There's all kinds of ways to measure student achievement and that's one of the questions this taskforce is really going to unpack. It's really going to explore how the testing framework could evolve with these changing systems and changing needs," said Crosson.

The Minnesota Education Department pointed to a couple of bright spots, like early childhood literacy and high school ACT scores, which they say are a full point higher than the national average.