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MinnCAN: The Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now today released analysis of Minnesota’s NAEP test scores, and while Minnesota leads the nation in math achievement, the state’s achievement gap remains exceptionally large compared to other states, particularly in racial and income subgroups.
Our analysis shows that:
- African American students in fourth and eighth grades are more than three grade levels behind white students in math.
- African American students in fourth and eighth grades are more than two grade levels behind whites in reading.
- In all grade levels, low-income students are more than two grade levels behind their wealthier peers.
Minnesota’s NAEP results identified some gains, including:
- In fourth and eighth grade reading, African American students scored higher than they ever have before, increasing their overall score by 4.5 points and 2.3 points, respectively, from 2009;
- Eighth grade Hispanic students jumped 10.3 points from 2009, and fourth graders improved by 6.4 points; and
- Low-income students across all grades improved since 2009 in both reading and math.
“Our achievement gap shows that we need a plan that accelerates the learning curve for students of color in this state,” said Vallay Varro, executive director of MinnCAN. “The good news is we’re doing a lot of things right. Minnesota is engaging in a more serious dialogue on education reform and leveraging its legacy of educational innovation, including clearing the pathway to quality pre-K for all families and adopting an effective model for teacher evaluation that incorporates individual student gains. We have a long-standing tradition of prioritizing public education in Minnesota. To put our state back on the map, we must implement effective education reform policies so that every child in Minnesota has access to a great public school.”
For interviews with Vallay Varro on Minnesota’s NAEP results, contact Nicholas Banovetz at: (651) 815-5999 or Nicholas.Banovetz@MinnCAN.org.