Changes and Greater Urgency Needed to Ensure Minnesota Schools Serve All Students

Right now, students and teachers across our state are preparing for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). These standardized exams are an objective data point that tells us whether students are meeting state standards in core academic subjects.

Sadly, the results of the MCAs have become all too predictable with wide gaps between students from low and higher income households and between white students and students of color.

Roberta Walburn and Carolyn Smallwood from our board recently teamed up with other leaders from the business, education policy, research, and nonprofit sectors and wrote an opinion piece that calls for greater urgency, collaboration, and problem solving to reduce Minnesota’s staggering achievement gaps. Their work was published in the Star Tribune this week.