Hopkins Sees Big Gains in Reading, Math Scores

students made huge strides in reading and math proficiency, seeing gains as big as 15 percentage points at one grade level, according to test results the Minnesota Department of Education released to the public Wednesday.

“The students and the teachers and the families did such great work,” said Diane Schimelpfenig, the district’s director of teaching, learning and assessment.

The results come from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments that students took last spring. Third- through eighth-grade students and 10^th-grade students took the reading portion of the test. Grades three through eight and 11^th grade took the math portion.

The good news Hopkins saw was echoed across the state. Math scores were up for grades three through eight, and the state saw overall growth in reading scores.

“The upward trends we’re seeing show that we are on the right path to prepare our students for success,” a news release quoted Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius.

( to see a detailed breakdown of Hopkins results by school.)

Widespread growth

Math offered the biggest change for Hopkins. —with third, fourth and seventh grades all falling behind the state average.

Hopkins still lagged the state in three grades this year: third, fourth and eighth grades.  But this time, the district average grew in every grade level—including by a whopping 17.3 percent for seventh graders. Where nine categories fell below 50 percent proficiency in 2011, just three were below that point in 2012: sixth-grade class and Eisenhower and fifth-grade classes.

Reading, which already saw big gains in 2011, continued to trend upward. Fourth and fifth grades had the only districtwide decreases, and Hopkins fell below the state in just third grade and fourth grade.

Time in the school district

Hopkins has a pattern of lagging the state in the first few years only to catch up in later grades. In the district, Hopkins High School had the biggest lead over its peers statewide in both reading and math.

Schimelpfenig speculated that’s a sign that students, some entering the district from other countries, benefit from spending more time in Hopkins. But she said that’s not something the district can conclusively determine until it’s had a chance to do deeper analysis.

“I think we’re really confident the longer the students stay with us, the more positive their growth will be,” she said.

Struggling schools

Still, schools within City of Hopkins boundaries continued to post worse scores than their peers elsewhere in the district. In reading, Alice Smith only saw gains in the sixth grade and Eisenhower only saw gains in third grade.

Demographics may account for some of that. In the 2010-11 school year, 38 percent of the district’s students were eligible for free or reduced lunch and 11 percent were classified as “English Language Learners.”

By contrast:

• Alice Smith had 58 percent eligible for free or reduced lunch and 16 percent classified as English Language Learners.
• Eisenhower had 47 percent eligible for free or reduced lunch and 14 percent classified as English Language Learners.

But Schimelpfenig said the district won’t know the exact reason behind the trends until staff have a chance to dig deeper into the data.

“I think all of us do our very best work with all of our students,” she said.

On a positive note, this year’s test scores arrived in a more-timely manner than last year’s. The 2011 state government shutdown delayed last year’s release until September. The August 1 release of this year’s tests allows the district to dig into the data before the school year begins and use it to tailor instruction to students, Schimelpfenig said.

“Every unique group of students has its own unique and interesting characteristics,” she said.

Wednesday’s results are part of a two-phase release of data by the Minnesota Department of Education. At the end of August, the department plans to release new “,” which grade the schools on four categories: proficiency, student growth, their ability to close the achievement gap and, for high schools, graduation rate.

The aim is to reward schools with students who start at a disadvantage but achieve faster than average growth—even if they don’t hit the intended target. In the past, schools had to meet yearly proficiency targets and all categories of students had to meet those targets. If just one subgroup did not make “adequately yearly progress,” the school could be classified as failing.

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GRAD Scores

In addition to the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment results, the Department of Education also released the following results for the Graduation-Required Assessments for Diploma (GRAD) component of the MCA, which measures reading, writing and math proficiency.