Editorial: A question of ample resources
The MCA-IIs (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) science test scores were released earlier this week, and the news — at least from a statewide level — wasn’t particularly great.By: Daily Globe, Worthington Daily Globe
The MCA-IIs (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) science test scores were released earlier this week, and the news — at least from a statewide level — wasn’t particularly great.
The percentage of students passing the Science MCA-II was low at all three grade levels. Only 39.1 percent of Minnesota fifth-graders passed the test, while the passing rate for eighth-graders and high school students was 38.2 percent and 42.7 percent, respectively. Clearly, there’s a lot of work to do across Minnesota in this area.
It should be kept in mind that this was the first time students took the Science MCA-IIs, and scores may well be low in part because of students’ unfamiliarity with the exam. Thankfully, this year’s results will not be used to measure Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) — a benchmark much maligned on this page — as required by No Child Left Behind legislation.
District 518 Superintendent John Landgaard made a commendable point when commenting about the Science MCA-IIs. He said that schools may have pulled resources away from science, social studies and other areas of the curriculum in working to achieve AYP in reading and math.
This redistribution of resources has almost certainly been the case in numerous school districts. Now, as a result, comes low science scores — and, problem is, there are only so many resources to go around.
Tags: opinion, education, mca-ii, science, ayp
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