“We need to get students to be successful no matter which path they take,” Amoroso said. “And we do that by ensuring students have interpersonal skills, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills — the whole list of 21st-century skills.”

Maple River motivation
The Maple River School District took a different approach to improving its proficiencies: by motivating students with Saturdays and summers.

A few years ago, teachers at the high school said incoming students lacked the necessary work ethic. In response, middle school teachers created a Saturday school for students falling behind in reading and math. The program, which is voluntary, is recommended to parents when a teacher notices a student not achieving by the middle of the term. Those students then meet with their teachers throughout the week to identify problem areas and then spend three hours practicing on Saturday mornings.

In addition, the district is in the middle of a new summer school program that is based on the premise that if a student isn’t achieving at grade-level after an intensive summer-long program, then that student will not move to the next grade level.

Taken in combination with Professional Learning Communities and the district’s ongoing efforts to improve curriculum, the Saturday and summer programs represent a concerted effort to pair teaching with testing, said Maple River assessment coordinator Jim Bisel.

And the efforts paid off in this year’s results.

Regionally, Maple River’s MCA-II results were among the strongest from top to bottom.

On a statewide level, Maple River had several subjects that were more than 10 percentage points higher than state averages. In sixth-grade math, Maple River’s proficiency was 79.7 percent compared to a 63.7 percent state average. In seventh-grade reading, Maple River was nearly 20 points above state averages.

“For the past three years, we’ve really tried to take an organized approach to what is taught and what is tested,” Bisel said.

“We’ve been working on our curriculum a long time, and it looks like we’re starting to turn the corner.”

Waseca is elementary
Waseca, too, posted some of the highest results in the region on the most recent batch of MCA-II results.

But the district’s most remarkable score was at the third-grade level where students were 97.2 percent proficient in math and 94.5 percent proficient in reading.

Michelle Krell, who is principal of the K-3 Hartley Elementary school, said her staff uses all the standard improvement programs from PLCs to intervention programs. The school also has an after-school program to provide a small window of more personalized instruction for some students, and a summer Kids Academy where additional instruction is embedded into fun activities.

But even more than that, Krell said the secret behind Hartley’s success comes down to a culture where test scores are valuable and high standards are the rule.

“We have really high expectations,” Krell said. “We have a belief that kids can achieve.”