Aquila, PSI Score Well in New State Ratings

New data was released Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Education based on the state's new accountability system, and St. Louis Park schools generally fared well, though the junior high fell below the midpoint of the revised scale.

Minnesota is using the new Multiple Measurement Ratings (MMR) after being freed from the No Child Left Behind system by a federal waiver.

The MMR system looks at four areas in calculating an overall rating:

• Proficiency: Incorporates the existing adequate yearly progress measurement, with results broken down into different student subgroups.
• Student growth: Measures how much schools helped students improve from one year to the next.
• Achievement gap closure: Measures the ability of schools to coax faster growth from traditionally underperforming subgroups by comparing the growth of the lower-performing groups at a school to the statewide average for higher-performing subgroups. For example, students of color would be compared to white students or students receiving free and reduced lunches would be compared to those who are not receiving them.
• Graduation rate

In addition, schools that receive federal Title I funding, or those that participate in the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program, are put into one of the following categories:

• Reward Schools: The top 15 percent of schools (127 schools) based on MMR scores
• Priority Schools: The bottom 5 percent of schools (42 schools) based on MMR scores
• Focus Schools: The bottom 10 percent of schools (85 schools) based on the achievement gap rating. 

In St. Louis Park, both Aquila and Peter Hobart elementary schools receive Title I funds. Aquila was labeled a "reward" school with an overall rating of 79.96 (on a scale of 0-100). Peter Hobart scored a 50.59 and received no label.

In an emailed statement, district spokeswoman Sara Thompson said the district would look at implemeting best practices from Aquila at other local schools.

You can see full results for St. Louis Park schools below:

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