June 30, 2009
MCA-II Results Released
The MDE held a press conference today to discuss the MCA-II results. The test data is embargoed until tomorrow, July 1 at 12:01 a.m. so the stories will be in the morning papers and on the radio and TV throughout the day tomorrow. Below are the talking points the MDE used at the press conference. This is for your information only to give you an idea of what the MDE expressed to the media – this information is also embargoed until 12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning.
MCA-II Summary/Talking Points
(The following information is not public until 12:01 am, Wednesday, July 1)
· Math and reading MCA-II test scores increased or stayed relatively steady for most grades in 2009.
· The biggest increase on the MCA-II was in 11th-grade math, with nearly an eight percent increase. This can be attributed to the new more rigorous graduation requirement, which provided an additional incentive for students to perform well.
· Fourth-grade math and sixth-grade and 10th -grade reading scores all increased by about three percent, while fourth-grade reading increased by about two percent.
· There was also a small decrease in fifth-grade reading results.
The Math and Reading MCA-IIs meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which requires that all students be proficient by 2014. The assessments are administered in Reading in grades three through eight and 10, and in Math in grades three through eight and 11.
This spring, approximately 501,000 students took the Math and Reading MCA-IIs, which measure student performance on the Minnesota Academic Standards. Those standards define what students should know and be able to do in a particular grade and are developed in partnership with Minnesota educators. On the MCA-IIs, each student earns a score in one of four achievement levels: Does Not Meet Standards, Partially Meets Standards, Meets the Standards, or Exceeds the Standards. Students who meet or exceed standards on the MCA-II are considered proficient.
Taking Points
· Minnesotans can be proud of the progress that has been made toward improving student achievement in several areas. Our challenge now is to build upon our successes and continue to address existing challenges in order to prepare every one of our students to succeed.
· It¹s no accident that the biggest increase in scores took place in the grades where we saw the greatest increase in student expectations. The 11th-grade math scores show that when we raise expectations, students will meet the challenge.
Assessment Task Force
The Omnibus E-12 Finance Bill included language creating a task force to develop recommendations for Minnesota’s next generation of high school assessments and accountability system. The task force is being chaired by Dr. Dirk Mattson, director of assessment at MDE, and Kent Pekel, the executive director of the College Readiness Consortium at the University of Minnesota. The task force has established a web page to allow the public to track the progress of the group and to offer feedback. Here is a link:
http://www.mnp16.org/working_groups/ccrpi.html
June 25, 2009
State Facing Projected Budget Deficit of $7.3 Billion for 2012-13
As if the news coming out of the Capitol hasn’t been bad enough, projections show a potential $7.3 billion state budget deficit for the 2012-13 biennium. Here is a link to a story in the on-line edition of Politics in Minnesota:
Legislative Advisory Commission Meets on Tuesday
The Legislative Advisory Commission meets next Tuesday, June 30 at 10:00 a.m. in room 15 of the Capitol to continue discussing the Governor’s proposed unallotments. There continues to be a strong disagreement between the Governor and legislative leaders over the Governor’s authority to carry out his proposal. One of the major areas of disagreement is over the Governor’s plan to “mimic” the school aid payment shift and the property tax recognition shift. The difference on the property tax recognition shift is very clear – legislative leaders do not believe the Governor has the authority to enact this shift – period. The Governor disagrees and there is no indication that he will back down. Regarding the aid payment shift, legislative leaders acknowledge that the Governor has the authority to delay payments to schools but the agreement ends there. Legislative leaders argue that it will take legislative action to appropriate and release the catch-up payment which would increase from 10 percent to 27 percent of the aid entitlement. Thus, legislators are arguing that given the projected $7.3 billion projected budget deficit in 2012-13, there is no guarantee that school districts will receive the 27 percent payment. These issues were discussed at the last LAC meeting and will likely surface again on Tuesday. You can watch the entire June 18 LAC meeting by clicking here.
MCA-II Date Release
Below is an email from Christine Dufour from the MDE outlining the timeline for release of the MCA-II results.
Good afternoon,
I have an update for the June 29th release of MCA-II data. As you know, the districts will receive the data in the morning and MDE will release the data later that day. MDE will conduct interviews on June 30th and the embargo will be lifted July 1.
We will send the media the finalized schedule this week along with the embargo confirmation/agreement. Also, when we send out the embargoed data on June 29th we include a sentence that alerts the media that the districts are receiving the information at the same time the reporters are receiving it and that districts may need some time to analyze data.
Please feel free to contact me with questions.
Christine
Christine Dufour
Minnesota Department of Education
Deputy Communications Director
1500 Highway 36
Roseville, MN 55113
651.582.8720
June 16, 2009
Governor Pawlenty Announces Unallotment Plan
Governor Pawlenty held a press conference this afternoon to announce his plan to use his unallotment authority to balance the state budget. As expected, the Governor announced that he will implement a 73/27 aid payment shift and a property tax recognition shift which will contribute $1.77 billion toward solving the state budget shortfall. The legislature had adopted the same shift proposal in the tax bill they sent to the Governor at the end of the session that was subsequently vetoed.
Here is a link to a summary of the proposed unallotments and other administrative actions:
http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/budget/unallotment/unallotment_2009.pdf
Here is a link to a letter from Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson to Governor Pawlenty outlining the recommendations:
http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/budget/unallotment/unallotment_transmittal_2009.pdf
The next step in the process is for Commissioner Hanson to present the plan to the Legislative Advisory Commission on Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in room 15 of the State Capitol. The Commission’s role is purely advisory – they do not have the ability to stop the plan from moving forward.
We will keep you posted as further information becomes available.
June 12, 2009
State Employee Contract Settlement
I previously sent out the attached summary of the tentative agreement between the State and its bargaining groups but I thought I would send it again in case it was lost in the shuffle.
Community Dialogue
Last night I attended a community issues dialogue sponsored by The Council on Black Minnesotans and the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. The focus of the dialogue was addressing educational disparities and the persistent achievement gap that exists between white students and students of color. I am attaching a copy of the presentation that was used and also a copy of the Minnesota Covenant for Education Equity with Excellence that was developed by MMEP.
District Governed Schools
The Citizens League is hosting a forum that will provide information about the changes that were made to state laws covering district governed schools. Here is a link with additional information including a link to a registration form.
Calendar
The AMSD calendar for 2009-10 is available on our web site: http://www.amsd.org/calendar.html
Please note that the next Board of Directors meeting will be on August 13 at 4:30 at the Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park. This is in conjunction with the MSBA Summer Seminar.
Unallotment Process
There is not much new to report related to the forthcoming unallotments. The Governor could announce his unallotment plans as soon as next week but a specific date has not yet been scheduled. Here are links to some related information:
To listen to an interview with Governor Pawlenty click here.
Te read an update by the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits click here.