MN test scores: Little improvement for student reading, math scores

(FOX 9) - New data show Minnesota students made little to no gains in reading, math, and science scores in 2024, which all still lag far behind pre-pandemic performance.

The results

Across all grades and subjects, students who took the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment scored about the same percent proficient, Minnesota Department of Education data show. 

Math scores:

• About 45% of Minnesota students were proficient in math. That's down 0.03% from the previous year.

Reading scores:

• About half of Minnesota students were proficient in reading, down 0.05% from the previous year.

Science scores

• About 39.6% of Minnesota were proficient in science, up .04 from the previous year.

The good and the bad

State data shows that student attendance rates rose in 2023. The number of students who attended class 90% of the time in 2023 jumped to 74.5% from 69.8% in 2022.

However, assessment scores showed little to no improvement over 2023 and lagged far behind pre-pandemic numbers.

Context

The test scores demonstrate Minnesota's struggle to rebound from pandemic education impacts. Nationally, data show Minnesota has fallen behind other states in school performance.

Minnesota ranked 19th in education in the Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT ranking. Just two years ago, the state ranked ninth in those rankings. (Note: The 2024 rankings were based on 2022 assessment data, and the 2022 ranking was pulled from 2019 data.)

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that Minnesota fell below the national average for the fourth-grade reading assessment in 2022, below states including neighbors Iowa and Wisconsin, along with Kentucky and Mississippi, which historically rank lowly in education.