School performance ratings released

All other schools in that district, South Koochiching- Rainy River School District, as well as International Falls and Littlefork-Big Falls districts, received no designations, meaning they fell between the lowest and highest performing schools in the state.

Multiple Measurement Ratings, or MMR, released last week by the Minnesota Department of Education show for most local schools, students in the secondary level performed significantly higher than elementary students. 

MMR results are new state measurements replacing the federal Adequate Yearly Progress system that fell under heat as an ineffective measurement of school performance. The Minnesota Department of Education’s waiver from AYP under the No Child Left Behind law was approved earlier this year.

MMR measures proficiency in reading, math, science and writing; student growth; achievement gap reduction; and graduation rates. Designations for the lowest achieving schools are “focus school” (the 10 percent of schools making the biggest contribution to the achievement gap), and “priority school” (the 5 percent most-persistently low-performing schools in the state). At the other end of the spectrum, “reward school” identifies the highest performing 15 percent of the state’s schools. Receiving no designation means student performance fell between these levels.

 Only schools that receive Title I funding, which all schools in Koochiching County receive, are considered for MMR designations.

Jerry Struss, superintendent at South Koochiching - Rainy River School District, said Indus School teachers, administrators and parents will meet to come up with a process to develop a plan to improve Indus elementary performance. He aims to have a plan in place by November, and put it in process as soon as it’s ready, he said.

He added that he likes what the state is doing with MMR in measuring individual student growth, considering that the AYP system was more of a cohort model.

“The administration (at the district) talked a long time about how to measure individual student growth,” Struss said. “I’m excited about the potential for something like that.”

International Falls School District Superintendent Nordy Nelson said he was happy to see his district overall met the targets for proficiency in reading and math, and that the district made AYP.

“We had all student groups above the cutoff for proficiency,” he said.

Littlefork- Big Falls School last year was designated a “reward school” for its exceptionally high achievement.

“While our school did not receive reward school designation this year, we are very proud of our students and scores with MMR,” said L-BF Superintendent Fred Seybert, adding that his district made AYP. “We are always striving and looking for ways to improve, nevertheless.”

He added that curriculum development is an integral part of improving scores, and his district looks at minutes per day the teachers spend on teaching various disciplines that will be included in the state testing. Administrators meet with staff to make necessary adjustments to time spent on subjects.

Local superintendents support the new MMR system to measure student and school performance, they said.

“It’s really a new measurement,” Struss said. “It’s a positive step for the state to take.”

Area schools’ scores

Below are percentile figures schools are in for meeting a statewide proficiency target according to the Minnesota Multiple Measurement Ratings derived from 2012 standardized tests in reading and math. A percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall. (For example, if you secure 86 percentile score, it means that you are better than 85 percent of the scores in the state.)

International Falls School District

Elementary: 21 percentile

Secondary: 99 percentile

Littlefork - Big Falls School

Elementary: 27 percentile

Secondary: 99 percentile

Indus School

Elementary: 7 percentile

Secondary: 4 percentile

Northome School

Elementary: 82 percentile

Secondary: 66 percentile