In order to help all Minnesota students excel, we must start with an accurate picture of—and detailed data on—where they are now. Our current data reporting systems offer only a crude outline of how children from different backgrounds are faring. Thankfully, Minnesota made historic progress by passing a new bill in 2016 to ensure that all kids count!
To paint a better picture, and empower educators, policymakers and families to advocate for more tailored supports for student groups with diverse assets and needs, we must effectively implement this bill to disaggregate and cross-tabulate student achievement data by prevalent racial categories, ethnic communities and other important factors. With more detailed student data, we can better understand how kids are doing, make smarter decisions about where to target resources and efforts and also become a national leader in educational equity.