News & Events
Edina Public Schools test scores remain high, continue to outperform peers
State test results indicate consistent growth and narrowing of achievement gap
EDINA, Minn. – Today’s release of the 2012 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) results, the state mandated tests in reading and mathematics, indicate that students in Edina Public Schools (EPS) continue to outperform their Minnesota peers in academic proficiency. Results for area students showed increases in both reading and math over 2011 scores.
“We are pleased to see the increases over last year’s scores and the continued trend showing Edina students performing well,” said Superintendent Ric Dressen. “While we understand that the MCAs represent just one day in the student’s academic career, we are proud of how our students performed on these high-stakes tests and thank the teachers and parents for their ongoing partnership to ensure success for every child.”
READING
Edina Public Schools reading scores marked a one percent increase over 2011 results, with growth seen at all age levels. Overall, 92.65 percent of EPS students scored at or above grade level. The most notable gains occurred at the elementary level, where student proficiency rates increased from 91.82 percent to 94 percent.
“When you already have over 90 percent of your students scoring at proficiency, a gain of over two percent is quite significant,” said Dr. Chad Schmidt, the District’s director of research and evaluation. “We believe this is a reflection of the work our teachers are doing in deploying appropriate interventions and strategies to personalize each student’s instruction and meet their needs.”
MATH
Math results showed a modest gain overall, increasing from 79.61 percent to 80.42 percent. In particular, EPS middle school students showed an increase of 3.5 percentage points, and a one percent gain was seen at the elementary level.
Schmidt noted that while many districts across the state retested students in math this year, EPS made the decision to test students only once.
“We felt that our students are already testing a lot throughout the year, so we decided to have students only take the math MCA once,” said Schmidt. “Nonetheless, we saw notable growth at elementary and middle school and in all student groups [e.g. students of color, low-income students, etc.].”
Schmidt did acknowledge that scores in grade eleven dropped from last year, which mirrored high school results statewide.
“We will be looking closely at the high school results to determine if there are instructional adjustments we should be making at this level or if the results were unique to this particular group of students,” he said.
ACHIEVEMENT GAP
For several years, EPS has seen a narrowing of the achievement gap, which looks at results of individual student group results, such as those of specific racial/ethnic groups or students in poverty, and compares it to white student performance. When looking at these individual student groups, EPS students continue to make gains and outperform their peers across the state. However, an achievement gap does remain.
“Over the last several years, we have made great strides in narrowing the achievement gap, in some cases by almost half,” said Schmidt. “However, this year we did see a modest drop in the proficiency rates of our black students in reading, which we will be looking at in more detail.”
Superintendent Ric Dressen echoed Schmidt in the need to look closely at the data and align it with District goals and objectives.
“We heard from our community through our strategic planning process last year that we need to be more intentional in personalizing learning for each student, to include closing the achievement and opportunity gap,” Dressen said. “By digging deeper into all of our student data to see how individual students are performing, we will be able to see what specific strategies are necessary to ensure that the delivery of instruction is customized to the needs of the student. We are proud of our tradition of excellence in Edina Public Schools, and we want to be sure that each student we serve has the opportunity to be successful.”
To access Edina Public Schools results, click here
Edina Public Schools is comprised of six elementary schools (K-5), two middle schools (6-9) and one senior high (10-12). Total enrollment is approximately 8,300 students. The District serves a large portion of Edina, a first-tier Minneapolis suburb comprised of approximately 47,450 people.