|  | | MESPA Home > Resources for Principal Leadership > Assessments |  | Science MCA-II: first results released August 19, 2008
Background
This spring, a total of 184,570 students in grades 5, 8 and high school took the Science MCA-II measuring student performance on Minnesota's Academic Standards.
The science standards define what students should know and be able to do in a particular grade and are developed in partnership with Minnesota educators. Each student earns a score in one of four achievement levels:
- Does Not Meet Standards
- Partially Meets Standards
- Meets the Standards
- Exceeds the Standards.
Students who Meet or Exceed standards are proficient. Currently, results from the science assessment do not impact Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
The Science MCA-II is interactive and allows students to simulate experiments online. Sample questions for the assessment may be downloaded from NCS Pearson Inc.
Talking Points from the Minnesota Department of Education
(concerning this first release of MCA-II Science results)
- Rigorous science education is central to our ability to prepare our students for future success in college and career.
- These results underscore the need for Minnesota to continue with its efforts to improve science education.
- Minnesota is currently implementing several initiatives to improve student achievement, especially in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. For example, the Math and Science Teacher Academy, which began this year, focuses on improving teacher effectiveness.
- In addition, Minnesota is in the process of revising its science standards that were created in 2003.
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