Lakeville presents World's Best Workforce results; leaders flag opt-outs, subgroup gaps and staff diversity shortfall

Assistant Superintendent Emily McDonald presented the district's annual World's Best Workforce and Achievement & Integration report, describing goals and disaggregated student data and outlining next steps to amend the plan to reflect new state reporting.

Macroscopic findings: McDonald said the district will report on kindergarten readiness, early literacy alignment, achievement gaps, career/college readiness and graduation rates. She noted the state has changed reporting language and that beginning next year the district will present a new "comprehensive assessment and civic readiness" report; tonight's presentation reflected the previous World's Best Workforce framework for last year.

Key academic metrics and test participation McDonald walked board members through MCA proficiency rates disaggregated by student groups (race, economic status, students experiencing homelessness). She cautioned that MCA results can be distorted at the secondary level by differential participation: math participation at the high school had a much lower participation rate (presenter noted roughly half the cohort did not take the math MCA in the year under discussion), while reading and science participation patterns differed because of course-associated testing.

"We don't really see an issue with a lot of opt-outs at the elementary; where we're really seeing the impact is at the high school," McDonald said, explaining that participation differences complicate direct comparisons and that small subgroup cell sizes magnify score swings.

Other measures: ACT, graduation and postsecondary outcomes McDonald said the district's ACT participation and scores are strong and met the district goal; the district reported a graduation rate of about 93.7% (just under a stretch goal of 96%). She also presented SLEDS postsecondary tracking showing where recent graduates enrolled (University of Minnesota, Normandale, Mankato, Saint Thomas and Duluth among the top destinations) and noted the percent of graduates requiring pre-college courses in college has dropped substantially over recent cohorts.

Staff diversity and plan adjustments McDonald told the board the district employs about 2,443 staff, of whom roughly 130 (about 5%) self-identify as staff of color; within the EML teaching core (about 817 staff) she reported 12 self-identified staff of color (about 1.4%). She and board members said the achievement and integration plan will be amended to add explicit staff-diversity goals and that staff will return with more granular numbers and proposals.

Board follow-up Board members asked staff to dig into which students opt out of tests at the secondary level and whether opt-outs skew subgroup results. McDonald said the district will investigate participation composition and consider communication strategies that explain testing benefits to families.

The presentation is posted on the district's public-facing strategic-plan page and district staff said they will continue refining goals and dashboard metrics to align with new state reporting requirements.