MANKATO, Minn. -
The experiments are done and the beakers have been put away, and area schools had mixed results on the 2012 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test in Science.
New Ulm Superintendent Harold Remme says, "We are very pleased with our science test results that we have seen so far."
Remme says District 88 scored just below the state average for fifth graders and above the state average by around 15 percentage points for both 8th graders and high school students.
Mankato Area Public Schools scored below the state average for 5th and 8th graders and just at the state average for high schoolers.
Curriculum director for district 77 Cindy Amoroso says, "We've got areas where we can improve at every grade."
Amoroso says the district is also still aligning many courses to the new state standards.
Amoroso says, "We take our time not comparing to other districts, we take our time looking at our curriculum and our programming to make sure we are in alignment with state standards and identify where we can make improvement."
Because these results are not directly comparable to those from prior years, both districts will use them less as an assessment and more as a baseline for future results.
Amoroso says, "We need to see that build on year after year before we would make significant changes with that new programming."
And Remme says it will be easier to learn from these test than in the past because the new test more closely measure the new states standards.
Remme says, "There is some consistency there between the standards themselves and what is tested, I think that is a move in the right direction by the state."
