Education Policy, Business and Technology

15 years later, MN schools are more segregated, and achievement gap has barely budged

Twin Cities Pioneer Press: Fifteen years into a nationwide push to provide every student with an equal education, Minnesota schools have grown more segregated and the state’s nation-leading academic achievement gap refuses to close.

Minnesota now has more than 200 schools where students of color make up 90 percent or more of the enrollment, state data shows. That’s more than double what the state had in 2002, when the federal No Child Left Behind Act reinvigorated the national campaign for school equity.

At the heart of that effort are annual academic tests that measure students’ progress. In Minnesota, students of color routinely score at much lower rates in reading and math than their white peers. Since 2014, when Minnesota began using online tests, the state’s achievement gap has barely budged despite a commitment from state leaders to cut it in half by this year.

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