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Among juniors at Crookston High School in 2007-08, less than 21 percent scored proficient on the MCA II math test...and this is the easy part?

Well, no, said Ione Swenson, the school district's curriculum, assessment and staff development coordinator. Given the results of the latest Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II tests, released earlier this week, there are plenty of daunting challenges to take on right here and now. But, Swenson added, after three years of "flat" target rates for the federal No Child Left Behind education law, the proficiency target rates will now start rising "dramatically" each year until 2014, when language in the law requires that 100 percent of students score proficient on math and reading assessments.

"Whereas in North Dakota, it's apparently more of a stair-step fashion, our target rates in Minnesota will be going up sharply," she explained. "And that jump in the target rates converts directly to adequate yearly progress. I'm certainly not making any excuses, but this is going to be a moving target now. I've not necessarily been warning people about this, but I'm trying to emphasize the fact that things are going to ramp up now."

Adequate yearly progress, or AYP, is what school districts strive to make. But when they don't - the test scores of some student sub-groups in Crookston three years ago landed Highland School on the non-AYP list - they have to get busy seeing to it that they get off the list. Highland did the next year.

Last year, 729 schools in Minnesota were on the non-AYP list, and education officials expect that number to jump this year. School districts will find out in August where they stand in the eyes of the No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress standard.

A longtime concern among teachers and people with job titles similar to Swenson is student motivation. Is there enough at stake for them, at the high school level specifically, to do well on the tests? That problem might be alleviated somewhat next year, Swenson said, when a graduation requirement will kick in. Juniors taking the test in 2008-09 will have to score proficient on the math component of the MCA II in order to graduate. If they don't as juniors, they will have an opportunity as seniors to take retests online as often as every eight weeks.

"Until now, we've tried to say do your best, this is a reflection on you and how well you're doing," she said. "The parents get a copy of their child's report in September, but the graduation component hasn't been there yet."

Local students, three times per school year, take the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) online tests to measure where they're at academically, related to grade level, and how much they're growing academically, or not. The scores and other data are available for analysis almost immediately, and Swenson and the teaching staff have gleaned valuable information from the NWEA testing system. Scores on the MCA II tests, meanwhile, take several months to be compiled and reported.

"The NWEA tests measure growth in skills and the MCA II tests hone in on standards, and it becomes a question of the validity of the varying statistics," she said. "Are you testing what you're teaching?"

One strategy being implemented involves positive reinforcement. Some students during this past school year and in summer school now are utilizing "I Can" statements that are based on the education standards. "It's basically a checklist of skills that the students are mastering, a student-friendly rewording of the state standards," Swenson explained.

That's nice, but it doesn't make the hurdles any easier to clear. The targets are going up and, it seems, the standards are almost constantly changing. The state is currently finalizing revised math standards, for example, Swenson said.

So teachers have to keep up. Regional academies throughout the state for teachers to get up to speed on the new math standards are being scheduled, and Crookston teachers will travel to Thief River Falls to get tips on how to integrate the modified standards.

The teacher academies will certainly be beneficial, Swenson said, but she's hearing from many educators who want to meet the higher standards that funding is an issue. This year, school districts in Minnesota will receive a one percent increase in the per-pupil-unit funding formula, not enough to keep up with inflation.

"I'm hearing that (percentage of an increase in funding) isn't going to cut it," Swenson said.

http://www.crookstontimes.com/articles/2008/07/07/news/18news2.txt