Majority of Minnesota students still not meeting reading and math standards

More than half of Minnesota public school students still don’t meet basic proficiency in reading or math, according to newly released 2024 statewide assessment results by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).

As measured by the 2024 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), 50.3 percent of tested students do not meet grade-level reading standards and 54.7 percent do not meet grade-level math standards, the same achievement results as in 2023.

The majority of Minnesota students take the MCAs — the reading test is administered in grades 3-8 and grade 10 and the math test in grades 3-8 and grade 11. The number of students taking the tests in spring 2024 remained high, coming in at 95.6 percent participation for reading and 93.9 percent for math. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, students who do not take the test are excluded from the assessment testing results. (So, MCA proficiency is not skewed by student opt outs, as I explain here.)

The stagnant test scores are also paired with persistent achievement gaps, “with only slight changes by race and ethnicity,” according to the Minnesota Department of Education and reported by The Minnesota Star Tribune.

Academic achievement challenges have existed pre-COVID, with declines exacerbated during school closures and interrupted learning.

Math/Reading Proficiency and Per-Pupil Spending
in Minnesota Public Schools

Sources: Minnesota Department of Education proficiency data; U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by Reason Foundation

“A potential bright spot in this year’s results: a drop in the percentage of students marked chronically absent from school in 2022-23, the latest year for which data is available,” continued the Strib. “The percentage of students consistently attending school was nearly 75 percent in 2022-23, a roughly 5 percent increase from the year before.” (As I wrote here in February, the state’s chronic absenteeism rate had more than doubled from spring 2017 to spring 2022.)

During the 2023 legislative session, a new historic education spending budget of $23.2 billion was approved for the next two years, including $2.26 billion in new funding. Much of that “new” funding came with a lot of strings, though, with the Minnesota School Boards Association, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, and others estimating back in February that “up to half the $2.2 billion had already been earmarked for as many as 65 new mandates,” reported The 74.

The state also passed legislation during the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions to overhaul literacy education, making evidence-based reading instruction a requirement for school districts, teachers, and the teacher preparation programs that prepare teacher candidates for the classroom. It will likely take time to see results from these changes. Third-grade reading scores on the MCA declined again this year, with 53.7 percent not meeting grade-level proficiency.