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When numbers on standardized tests are bad, schools are criticized for not meeting standards. When numbers are good, there’s usually less said.
That’s why it’s good news that Cotter High School 10th-grade students outperformed nearly every public, charter and private school in the state in reading on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments-Series II Math and Reading tests. In that category, Cotter ranked third, with about 97 percent of the students deemed proficient.
There’s a level of expectation that students should be getting good scores, and schools should be meeting expectations. So when MCA-II scores for Cotter High School students came back, officials at the school didn’t expect to be congratulated.
“I don’t know if we should get a whole lot of atta’ boys for good scores,” Cotter schools president Craig Junker said. “We should be getting good scores.”
Private schools are held to different standards than public schools when it comes to testing. They aren’t required to enroll every student in a district, and schools such as Cotter don’t have the large number of students with special needs that the Winona Area Public School system has. If a private school’s scores aren’t up to par, it isn’t penalized. But that doesn’t mean the schools don’t take them seriously.
Good or bad, the numbers on a spreadsheet that say what percentage of students are proficient or not proficient in a certain subject can only tell part of the story about a student’s education.
Students learn on different timelines, and teachers at any school would say education goes beyond just learning the right answers for a statewide test.
Despite the incomplete information they provide, when the numbers on standardized tests such as MCA-II are bad, schools are criticized and told they are failing their students. Public schools are penalized for not making Adequate Yearly Progress.
Junker wouldn’t compare Cotter with other schools, saying each situation is different, but he did speak highly of his institution.
“I do know that there’s a culture here of expectations that says a lot about what we are trying to do here,” Junker said. “We are trying to prepare our students for the next step of our educational journey.”
Junker pointed to small class sizes, the work of teachers and the students themselves for the school’s success. The school won’t rest on its laurels, though, and students are taking part in a summer reading program, coordinated by their teachers, to make sure they don’t lose what they learned over the summer.
“We don’t want our students to sit around at home this summer,” Junker said. “We want them reading this summer, and reading books that they are going to want to read.”
Public and nonpublic schools alike have work to do in 11th grade math, and Cotter is no different. Cotter scored 58.6 percent proficient — better than the average statewide scores in both public and private schools, but with lots of room for improvement. Statewide, private schools scored only 33.5 percent proficient in that category, about the same as public schools.
Winona students as a whole scored better in reading than in math.
Students in the Winona Area Catholic School system scored high in reading in every grade. Because of that and how he says his school approaches reading and writing in the classroom, Junker said, he welcomes tests like the MCA-II.
“What’s interesting is that some worry about teaching to the test,” Junker said. “To be honest, you should be preparing kids to have an understanding of what this test is all about, and when you are teaching kids to read and write, there’s a benefit there that shows up beyond a test or a test score.”
