Last August, the Minnesota Department of Education put out a press release on the 2025 statewide assessment results and reported that overall student performance on the reading and math Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) had remained “steady.” Education Commissioner Willie Jett said that the numbers reflected “stable proficiency and suggest a solid foundation for long-term gains,” reported KARE 11.
But the news release never mentioned the actual proficiency percentages — only 45.0 percent of Minnesota students met or exceeded math standards and only 49.5 percent met or exceeded reading standards.
Worse, these “stable” results mask individual achievement trends: more students lost ground academically last year than gained it.
According to the Minnesota Department of Education’s 2025 North Star Academic Progress report, 44.1 percent of students either dropped an achievement level in math from the year before or were already stuck at “Does Not Meet Standards” and stayed there. In reading, 39.4 percent of students saw their achievement level decrease or stay at “Does Not Meet Standards.” In both subjects, more students lost ground or stayed stuck at the bottom than improved or even maintained their achievement levels.
Statewide Academic Progress, 2025
| Category | Math | Reading |
| Achievement level improved | 13.7% | 18.7% |
| Achievement level maintained | 42.2% | 41.9% |
| Achievement level decreased or stayed at “Does Not Meet” | 44.1% | 39.4% |
NOTE: According to the Minnesota Department of Education, students must have a valid score in both years to be included in the academic progress calculations. Those who opt out are not counted.
These progress numbers, which track year-over-year movement for individual students, follow the all-too-familiar pattern Minnesota has found itself in for years — flat or declining proficiency numbers and troubling academic performance gaps between different groups of students.
Burying these worrying trends under words like “steady” and “stable” is not helpful or the right approach.
What now?
Efforts to turn the state’s academic tide finally included literacy reform in 2023, when the Minnesota Legislature passed the Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act. Inspired by the success Mississippi has had with its early reading instruction, the READ Act overhauled Minnesota’s approach to literacy education, requiring teacher preparation programs, school districts, and educators to use “evidence-based” reading strategies in instruction with the goal of every child reading at or above grade level every year beginning in kindergarten.
But Minnesota policymakers must remember that Mississippi’s education turnaround did not happen in a few years or as a result of any single policy. As I document here, The Magnolia State is at least a decade ahead of The North Star State on fixing literacy, with gains evident across different student demographics.
If Minnesota doesn’t implement additional policies to strengthen accountability, the READ Act could become like other state-based education reform that came before it — a paper commitment without the follow-through.
The Minnesota Department of Education has stated that students are “on track for long-term gains.” Implementation of the READ Act is still in progress, so time will tell if such gains are realized. For families whose kids can’t afford to fall further behind, giving them the opportunity to access something different — from expanding open enrollment to widening access to nonpublic options — does something that no state mandate can.
Minnesota continues to spend more on education every year, and the share of students trending backward has hardly budged. Without structural change to the state’s education system, students will continue paying the price.
