By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
On Monday, the Northfield School Board heard the World’s Best Workforce Presentation. The World’s Best Workforce Report is four goals set by the state government that every school district must work to accomplish and report each year. Overall, the Northfield Public Schools only met one goal entirely and partially met one other, and did not meet the remaining two. However, when placed in context with the rest of the state, the district is doing well overall.
On Monday, the Northfield School Board heard the World’s Best Workforce Presentation. The World’s Best Workforce Report is four goals set by the state government that every school district must work to accomplish and report each year. Overall, the Northfield Public Schools only met one goal entirely and partially met one other, and did not meet the remaining two. However, when placed in context with the rest of the state, the district is doing well overall.
The goal the district fully met was that 70% of incoming Kindergarten Students meet grade-level benchmark tests.
The next goal was to close all racial and economic achievement gaps between students. While the district can use many different metrics to measure this, Northfield Schools chose to use attendance. The district’s goal was that white students and students of color attend school at the same rate and that students who qualified for free or reduced lunch (FRP) attend school at the same rate as students who do not qualify (NFRP). Overall, they found that gaps remained in both metrics.
The district partially met the goal that all students are ready for careers and college, which is measured using three different metrics. The first metric is that 60% of 8th graders are proficient in the MCA test for Reading and Math. 66% of 8th graders were proficient in math, meeting the goal, and 59% of 8th graders were proficient in reading, meaning the school just missed its goal. Overall, Northfield students performed better on both the Reading and Math MCA tests than the state-wide average by 15% and 25%, respectively.
The last metric used to measure career and college readiness is the ACT, College Readiness Benchmark (CRB) in the four subsets of the test (English, Math, Reading, and Science). The goal is that 45% of students would meet the benchmark however, only 32% of students met the benchmark. In Minnesota, 26% of students met the ACT benchmark, and nationwide 20% of students met the benchmark. Additionally, in all of ACT subset tests, Northfield schools performed better than the state and national average.
The last goal was for 95% of students to graduate from high school in 4 years. In Northfield High School 97% of students graduate in 4 years. District-wide (which includes the high school and Area Learning Center), 93% of students graduate in 4 years.
At the meeting, the Director of Instructional Services Hope Langston shared plans that the schools work to address all of the different goals and expressed optimism for the future.
“This is where I think a little patience is necessary to see this play out, because then we threw COVID in the middle of all of that. We had some solid years after the adoption of our literacy curriculum COVID net, and we’re climbing back up. Right? But but I think that’s what that says to me, right?
We we need to stay the course, make adjustments as needed based on feedback that we’re getting from our staff about best ways to implement and adjust. But that’s that’s my take away.” – Director of Instructional Services, Hope Langston at the 10/28/2024 School Board Meeting
You can view the full presentation here: https://northfieldschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2024.10.28-WBWF-Board-Packet.pdf
