State Testing Results "Crucial" This Year For Hilltop, Salem Hills Elementary Schools

With all but two of the Inver Grove Heights School District's buildings and programs failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, the stakes are high this year for district officials.

Late in May, the Minnesota Department of Education released the 2011 statewide Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments results for the 10th grade reading and 11th grade math tests. The number of students who tested proficient on the exams grew marginally this year, but significant achievement gaps remain between white students and students of color across the state.

Local numbers won't be released until August, but that doesn't mean that the district isn't paying close attention to the statewide, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Bert Strassburg said.

“Obviously, we’re always watching the numbers very closely, the AYP numbers, the overall picture and [the results from] all of the subgroups,” Strassburg said.

Each spring, students at various grade levels within the district take the MCA exams, which evaluate the reading, math and science skills of students and break those results down into demographic subgroups — including ethnic groups, students from low-income families and Special Ed students.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the MCA scores from all those groups are used to determine whether a school has made “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP). If districts and schools receiving Title I funding fail to meet AYP goals for two or more consecutive years, they are classified as “in need of improvement” and face a battery of potential consequences. Corrective action may include a complete restructuring of the school, the replacement of school staff or the implementation of a new curriculum. If one subgroup within a school fails, then the entire school fails to make AYP.

, the district's largest elementary facility, has not met AYP standards for three consecutive years. If the school fails again in 2011, it will have to prepare a restructuring plan that will be implemented if the school continues to fail AYP for five consecutive years. School restructuring can take several different paths, Strassburg said. For example, he said, the district could convert the building into a charter or magnet school.

Under every alternative, however, Hilltop would still be required to replace 50 percent of its staff in the event of a restructuring. Such an action could have a ripple effect on other schools in the district, Strassburg noted, because the district would likely move many of its Hilltop staff to other schools in the district—and bring teachers and staff from other buildings into Hilltop.

But Hilltop isn't the only Inver Grove school that may face consequences because of its AYP results. In 2010, failed AYP for its first year. If the trend continues this year, the school must set aside 20 percent of its Title I funding—money the school receives for the students on its free and reduced lunch program—to allow its students the option of enrolling into another school.

While the , and Simley's alternative program didn't pass AYP standards in 2010, the schools don't receive Title I funding, which means there will be little impact to the schools if they don't pass again this year. Of the district's schools, only and the Atheneum program passed AYP standards in 2010.

Strassburg called 2011 a "crucial year" for the district. To boost low reading scores on the MCAs, the district is implementing a new language arts, reading and writing curriculum at the elementary level and is restructuring a reading program at the middle school that targets struggling students. Earlier this year, the School District 199 School Board which officials expect will also help boost literacy and test scores.

"We're looking for ways to really pinpoint where students are struggling...and using specified materials to work toward helping them fill in those gaps," Strassburg said.

Statewide MCA Results
This year, 83 percent of white students tested proficient on the statewide 10th grade reading test, compared to 62 percent of Asian students, 54 percent of Hispanic students and 49 percent of black students.

On the 11th grade math test, 56 percent of white students tested proficient, but only 43 percent of Asian students, 23 percent of Hispanic students and 17 percent of black students received passing marks.