From- http://www.plamerican.com
If the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) exams were graded, Aspen Academy would’ve earned an A+ for its fifth-grade students.
On the tests, administered last school year, 100 percent of Aspen Academy fifth-grade students exceeded proficiency on both the reading and math assessments. Maggie Rowan, Aspen’s curriculum coordinator, called the students’ performance “phenomenal.”
“It’s just astounding,” she added. “If you never see it, you don’t think it’s possible. Clearly, it can be done.”
This isn’t the first time the charter school, which opened its doors in 2007, has seen that level of success. The 2010 MCA results showed 100-percent proficiency for Aspen Academy’s fourth-graders in both math and reading. That’s the same cohort of students that exceeded proficiency this year.
“I think we compare ourselves internally,” Rowan said, referring to cohort data. “We’re heading in the right direction with these kids.”
While 100-percent proficiency is a rare feat on the MCAs – which are administered statewide in math, reading and science to students in elementary, middle and high school – Rowan said those benchmarks aren’t really the focus of the exams for her. Aspen’s remaining tested students also surpassed state averages.
On the reading exam, 93.2 percent of Aspen Academy third-graders met or exceeded proficiency – 14.7 percent more than the statewide average – and 88.1 percent of Aspen fourth-graders passed the reading exam – besting the statewide average by 13 percent.
The reading test administered last year was based on the same standards as prior MCA reading tests. The MCA-III math exam, however, was aligned to new, more rigorous standards. As a result, many districts across the state saw significant drops in their students’ math scores. Aspen, however, managed to buck that trend in third grade, with the proficiency rate increasing by 1.1 per-cent. In fourth-grade, math proficiency rates dropped 11.9 percent, but still outpaced the statewide average.
“I think we’re just able to achieve because the kids understand the test’s purpose and the role it plays in their future,” Rowan said. “We do have very high expectations for our kids, and they’re meeting them.”
The MCA exams are administered annually in compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates that 100 percent of tested students reach proficiency in math and reading (currently, students must take the science test but are not required to achieve proficiency) by 2014.
Each year, districts are required to show a certain amount of growth – deemed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) – in each grade level, in both math and reading, and in certain demographics called subgroups, or they can face serious consequences if the district accepts Title I dollars, which are given to supplement services for students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.
Aspen does not receive Title I dollars but is still subject to consequences should its MCA scores fall short and the school not meet AYP. The Wayzata-based organization Friends of Education holds Aspen’s charter and can revoke it, effectively shutting the school down, should Aspen not meet AYP.
“Our consequences can be more severe,” Rowan said, in comparison to the punishments non-charter public schools face.
Aspen has added sixth grade this year and is looking to grow to seventh grade next year. The school’s enrollment sits at about 350 students, and thus has outgrown its current location at Bethesda Church in Prior Lake. Rowan said school officials hope to receive the final word on Aspen’s new location in two weeks.
completely outgrown this building,” she said.
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