Minnesota keeps testing students, but new plan revamps grading of schools

Aug 01, 2017

Star Tribune, Beatrice Dupuy

Minnesota students will continue to take state tests, but the way that schools are graded will change dramatically under a new plan outlined Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Education.

The new plan would take full effect in the 2018-19 school year. It replaces the ratings and labels given to public schools based on their performance with one that focuses on the lowest-performing 5 percent of Title 1-funded schools. It also would identify high schools with a graduation rate below 67 percent or where any student group — black, Asian, Latino or low-income, for example — falls below a 67 percent graduation rate.