By Norma Dittman
Fulda Free Press staff writer
Fulda Elementary School Principal Mike Pagel recently shared that “2017 was a year of SUCCESS for Fulda Elementary School. Our students not only outperformed the state proficiency average in a great majority of assessments, and the testing proves that our staff did an outstanding job in reducing the achievement gap among all of our learners,” Principal Pagel stated.
He shared that according to the Minnesota Department of Education’s report a school was considered to have met the goal of reducing the achievement gap if the proficiency index rates for student groups exceeded the target.
In a communication to Principal Pagel from Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Commissioner of Education for the State of Minnesota, she congratulated Fulda Elemetary School for “meeting Minnesota’s goal of reducing the achievement gap by 50 percent in both math and reading.”
This goal was set in 2012 under the state’s No Child Left Behind Flexibility Waiver. It was then that Minnesota established a goal to reduce achievement gaps by 50 percent by 2017. Since 2012, schools and districts have received annual data showing progress toward this goal, and many Minnesota schools set local goals under the World’s Best Workforce in alignment with the Minnesota state goal.
In the letter to Principal Pagel, Dr. Cassellius wrote, “You, your staff, your students and your community are congratulated for this incredible accomplishment and commended for all the hard work you did to make it happen. Achievement gaps do not close without hard work and commitment.”
The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments tests were taken in the spring of 2017. MCA testing measures how Minnesota students are doing on state academic standards in reading, mathematics and science.
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