The ability to read by the end of third grade is a critical skill for a child’s success — not only for the remainder of his or her K-12 journey but for future career opportunities, earnings potential, and economic mobility.
Statewide, third-grade reading proficiency has been steadily declining for a number of years. Data from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment reports nearly 54 percent of third graders aren’t meeting grade-level reading benchmarks.
How does your district measure up? Are reading scores where they should be or is there room for improvement? Use the database below to see reading proficiency results from the 2024 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, students who do not take the test are excluded from the assessment results and do not impact a district’s MCA proficiency calculation.
Note: If you can’t find your district on the list, the student count was too small to report for student privacy reasons.
Test scores are not the only indicator of success, but they do play a role in evaluating learning because they are objective, standardized measures of student achievement on academic or proficiency standards and can also place healthy pressure on schools, helping to identify which ones are struggling to meet the minimum academic expectations.
If a school is not able to meet the learning needs of a child, that child should be able to access a learning environment that will, regardless of socioeconomic status. With Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), Minnesota families could use the dollars already allocated for their child’s education to cover pre-approved expenses such as tutoring, special education services, and tuition at another school, to name a few. It’s an opportunity to shift the focus from a centralized education system to meet individual students where they are at and ensure they are best set up for future success.
