Amid gloomy talk of financial struggles and subsequent cutbacks, the La Crescent-Hokah Board of Education received some heartening news at its monthly meeting Aug. 19: Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA-II) test scores exceed state standards, and the school district, as a whole, has made adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

At the meeting, middle school principal Ben Barton and curriculum director Julie Beddow-Schubert outlined the initial look at the MCA-II reading and math scores for 2009. All students in grades 3-8 take the reading and math test, while 10th-graders take the reading test and 11th-graders take the math test. A science test also was added recently for fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders but does not count towards AYP standards.

In 2009, 80 percent of La Crescent-Hokah students, over all grades, were deemed proficient in reading, higher than the state average of 72 percent and that of like-sized districts, which averaged 67 percent. The La Crescent-Hokah score is a 5 percent increase since 2007.

“At first glance, it appears this was a good year for us,” Barton said. “We’re just in the initial stages of looking at that data and asking questions, in terms of why we think we’re improving.”

Board member Kay Snuggerud asked whether there were any grades that scored particularly low, which might give cause for concern. Barton said there was no grade that was at least at the state average or just slightly below.

In math, local students’ proficiency rate is 66.7 percent, higher than the state’s 64.3 percent and like-sized districts’ 56.9 percent. That number is up from 59.5 percent in 2007.

Although no numbers were provided for science, Barton said students tested “very well, compared to the state and like-sized school districts.”

Superintendent Ron Wilke said with a proficiency rate of 80 percent like that of reading, in terms of No Child Left Behind, the school is starting to “bump up against the ceiling of getting to that point of how much more is realistic to grow.” Snuggerud added that No Child Left Behind, as it is today, is set up for public schools to fail, especially when proficiency rates get close to the top.

Beddow-Schubert, who is also pre-kindergarten through third-grade principal, reported the district as a whole made AYP in special education, something it hadn’t been able to do over the past few years. Each year that it failed to meet the standard moved the district one step closer to state sanctions. It also made AYP in all other areas, district-wide, even in the smallest subgroups, such as economically disadvantaged and ethnicity.

“All of those places where we failed to make AYP, we made those, across the board, in the district,” Beddow-Schubert said. “This is the first time in three years.”

The elementary school, the district’s only Title I school, which was also on the radar for not making AYP in the past, made it in all areas this year. The school will still need to organize an improvement plan because it needs to be off the list for two years, she said.

The district plans to keep on eye on attendance at Bluff Country Learning Options, which holds students, many of whom are transient, on its roster as long as possible in order to receive funding. Their absence, however, can be a problem when trying to meet standards. It’ll also be watching the school’s reading and math scores, keeping in mind that students who receive after-school tutoring, even if they never get direct classroom instruction at the school, are on the books.

At the end of the discussion, high school principal Rick Wolter said that La Crescent-Hokah students scored a composite 24 on the ACT test last year, which is a point-and-a-half higher than the state average. Minnesota led the nation last year in ACT test scores.

“(That) pretty much beats to death anybody in La Crosse or Holmen,” he said. “In the conference, Cotter and Rochester (Lourdes) were probably slightly above that.”

Q-comp goals

During the meeting, each principal briefly discussed goals their school hopes to meet to qualify for the state’s quality compensation program, in which La Crescent-Hokah takes part.

The high school is in the second year of a three-year plan, Wolter said, and for the coming school year, its goal is for 70 percent of ninth- and 10th-graders to meet or exceed individual growth targets in math, according to NWEA testing scores. Last year, 69 percent met their growth target, and Wolter said if it reaches 70 percent, that will place La Crescent-Hokah in the 86th percentile of sampled schools across the country.

Q-comp goals in the middle school also focus on math, Barton said, and this year, its growth target goal is 69 percent, up one percent from the previous year’s goal. A 69 percent mark would put the middle school in the 90th percentile of sampled schools. Barton called 69 percent a rigorous goal, and as a result, math will be a subject the school will attempt to teach in all subject areas.

At the elementary school, the target subject is reading, and the goal is to move from last year’s 63 percent meeting growth targets to 64 percent this year. Reading, Beddow-Schubert said, is the school’s most significant need. A 64 percent mark would put the school in the 80th percentile.

At BLCO, math is the goal and it’ll measure its success using MCA-II scores, rather than NWEA. This year, it hopes to get 10 percent of juniors and seniors to pass the embedded math portion of the MCA-II graduation test. At other area learning centers, zero to 20 percent of students are found to pass the math portion of the test.