District presents MCA and classroom assessment data, urges broader view of proficiency
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Summary
Staff presented spring state assessment results alongside classroom and benchmark measures, arguing that including "partially proficient" students gives a more complete picture of student outcomes and highlighting kindergarten growth measures and intervention trends.
Chisago Lakes School District staff presented the district’s latest statewide assessment results and other measures of student learning, and urged trustees and the public to consider classroom and benchmark data alongside MCAs.
The presentation, delivered by Sarah (staff member, presenter), summarized spring Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments participation and results and described how the district is using additional measures — classroom grades, benchmark screens and intervention exit data — to track student progress. "We were 56% proficient, meaning kids exceeded or met the standards, and then the state was 49.6," Sarah said when showing district reading results. She said that including students classified as "partially proficient" raises the combined share of students meeting or close to meeting standards to about 80%.
District officials said that MCAs are summative, given once per year, and provide system-level feedback rather than the instructional guidance teachers need day to day. "Standardized assessments ... really don't give us a lot of feedback instructionally," Sarah said, noting that classroom quizzes and benchmark tests better inform immediate teacher actions and student reflection.
The presentation reviewed how the state testing schedule is organized: grades 3–8 take ELA and math; grade 10 takes ELA; grade 11 takes math and science; and science is also administered in grades 5 and 8. Sarah described typical testing time for a fifth grader as about six hours total across sessions. She emphasized that the state test items have evolved to require more multi-step problem solving and analysis than older tests, and showed sample items to demonstrate the difference.
District staff also presented other locally collected indicators. For kindergarten, staff reported fall-to-spring growth on letter-sound fluency: 51% met the fall benchmark, rising to 71% in the spring; the share not meeting the fall benchmark fell from 31% to 9% by spring. For middle and high school, staff showed the percent of students earning at least 70% in core English and math courses as an additional measure of whether core instruction is working. A chart on intervention services showed a decline in the percentage of students receiving tier-2 reading and math supports over recent years, which staff said could indicate a stronger core, though they noted staffing and program-allocation factors affect those totals.
Board members and other trustees discussed public perceptions of test results, citing third-party rankings that use a narrow proficiency metric. One trustee suggested the district prepare a short, public-facing explanation of how it uses multiple measures; staff said a revised narrative will appear in the district’s annual report next month.
The presenter said the state Department of Education and federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) set minimum testing requirements, and reminded trustees that changes in standards over time affect direct comparisons across years. Staff said the new science assessment caused a delayed release of those results and that only reading and math results were available for the presentation.
Trustees thanked staff for the explanatory approach and discussed sharing the materials in community outreach events and the district’s annual report.
