Commentary; Posted: 2/14/07
Schools need better data to show effectiveness
Joe Nathan
Education Columnist
Needed – urgently – much more up-to-date, accurate information about Forest Lake, North Branch and other Minnesota high schools. We lack vital information that will help families select schools for their youngsters and help legislators and the broader public decide how the schools are doing.
Here are two examples of what I mean. The University of Minnesota and Minnesota State College System have done two studies in the past six years examining, among other things:
1. What percentages of Minnesota public high school graduates enter public colleges and universities?
2. What percentages of those graduates take remedial courses?
Statewide, 49 percent of students who graduated in 2002 enrolled in a Minnesota public higher education institution. Of those students, 36 percent took at least one remedial course.
Here are the percentages of students in this area who entered public colleges or universities, and of the graduates who entered the Minnesota post-secondary institutions took one or more remedial courses Forest Lake (52 percent, 42 percent), North Branch (41 percent, 34 percent).
Unfortunately this data is four years old. That’s because the legislature has not asked that the data be gathered every year. It should. Which schools are making progress? Which are doing especially well, and what can we learn from them?
Here’s a second example: high school graduation rates. Minnesota prides itself on one of the nation’s highest graduation rates.
Here are area 2005 high school graduation rates, as reported by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), Forest Lake – 97 percent, North Branch – 96 percent. Looks very good, right?
But there are significant problems with the federal formula currently being used by Minnesota and most other states to determine high school graduation rates.
In Minneapolis, a controversy has developed about North High School. MDE reports that 82 percent of African American students graduated from North in 2005.
Here’s another picture of North, supplied by MDE officials. In October 2001, there were 229 African American students in the ninth grade at North. In spring, 2005, four years later, 69 African American students graduated. And yet, MDE reports an 82 percent graduation rate.
That’s because the federal graduation rate formula is flawed. It’s complex, it’s under review, and changes may be coming. They are needed urgently.
We should know what percentage of students entered a high school in the ninth grade (or in cases of grades 10-12 high schools, the 10th grade), and what percentage of them graduated four years later. We also need to know what percentage of them entered colleges – public or private, and what percentage needed to take remedial courses.
This isn’t to be critical of teachers or principals, many of who are very hard working. But better information will help us understand the true picture in schools, and whether things are improving.
Better data also will show Minnesotans understand which schools and educators are most effective. We can learn from them to do an even better job with students.
Joe Nathan, a former public school teacher and administrator, directs the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota jnathan@hhh.umn.edu.
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