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ST. PAUL, Minn., July 30, 2015 – Education Minnesota President Denise Specht released the following statement regarding the release Thursday of the 2015 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, which were marred by widespread glitches and software design problems.

“Parents expect these scores to show their child’s academic progress, but no one knows if the 2015 scores of an individual student show what she learned or what she endured on testing day,” Specht said. “Parents should be skeptical and ask their child’s educators for the real scoop on how their child is learning.”
 
Last spring, more than 500 Minnesota educators responded to an Education Minnesota survey about the MCA tests. Ninety percent of respondents believe technical glitches affected the scores of their students. Only 6 percent of the respondents said they trusted that the results would accurately reflect what their students learned this year.
 
Educators wrote the software’s built-in calculator didn’t work, students were randomly logged out, students waited up to 15 minutes for the next question to load, sections of the reading test didn’t fit on the screen and the magnifier tool was unstable, to name just a few problems.

“Some scores may have risen because students were asked to re-take sections of their tests after a system crash,” Specht said. “Other scores may have fallen as students rushed through tests before they were kicked off the system. Some students got fed up and just started guessing. We have reports of students getting so frustrated they started crying.”
 
This may be the last year of test-based accountability based on the federal No Child Left Behind law. The U.S. Senate and U.S. House have both passed bills to replace NCLB. A conference committee is to reconcile the bills in the coming months.
 
“This would be a fitting end to the test-and-punish model of No Child Left Behind,” she said. “Weeks of teaching and learning lost to test prep, millions spent on tests that won’t help teachers and frustrated children moved to tears.”

About Education Minnesota
Education Minnesota represents 70,000 professionals working together for excellence in education for all students. Education Minnesota’s members include teachers and education support professionals in Minnesota’s public school districts, faculty members at Minnesota’s community and technical colleges and University of Minnesota campuses in Duluth and Crookston, retired educators and student teachers. Education Minnesota is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.