FARGO — Although spring test results showed mostly flat or slight decreases in reading and math scores for kindergarten through fifth grade students in Fargo Public Schools, administrators say there are many reasons and that they continue to look for ways to improve.
The growth side of testing, which shows how much students learn each year, showed some markedly improved numbers. Proficiency rankings, which compare test scores from one year to the next for each grade, were down or flat on many of the various tests and grade levels. Most of the testing was done from third to fifth grade.
Associate Superintendent Missy Eidsness said the Fargo schools have a high mobility rate, including students moving from school to school within the city, that is a major factor in having accurate testing.
She also said the district is looking to improve scores for the English learner students, as well as the Native American and special education groups.
"The district is becoming more and more diverse (in the student population)," Eidsness said.
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School board members John Rodenbiker and David Paulsen still asked why proficiency scores were down.
Associate Superintendent Robert Grosz said stable growth statistics for students from year to year were more important as educators make an effort to have the students "catch up with their peers."
Grosz also emphasized the high mobility rate and said some students may start at lower proficiency levels when switching schools, but the growth factor meant they were making progress.
School board member Robin Nelson didn't seem as concerned about the numbers.
"We're consistently outperforming the state," she said in looking at the test scores for Fargo compared to the state averages. In both reading and math, Fargo students in third through fifth grade were sometimes substantially above the state average.
The only problem was in reading test scores for third graders, which seemed to be a problem in some of the other testing also.
"I don't see anything alarming," Nelson said. "I think it's very promising and growth (from year to year) is where we need to focus."
Nelson added considering the city's growing diversity, compared to most other state schools, that "these are pretty excellent numbers."
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Superintendent Rupak Gandhi and Eidsness also pointed to a 2017 Stanford University study that looked at how effective schools were across the nation.
It showed that students who stayed in the Fargo schools from third to fifth grade had an average of 4.8 years of growth over the five years, far outpacing many districts nationwide and above the average.
"Five years is what we want. We are kind of right there," Eidsness said.
She said if students stay with the district they seem to do better.
However, she said the mobility rate is raising some hard questions. She said it's a growing trend that families and people are becoming more mobile "for a lot of reasons."
When asked by school board member Brian Nelson if more testing was needed, Eidsness said that what's needed is more informative assessments so teachers can learn and make adjustments to their lessons to meet student needs.
Jen Sahr, a coordinator for the school's Multi-Tiered System of Supports, said that more assessments take away instructional time.
In the end, the administrators said they needed to continue research into how to improve scores and work with problem groups. One plus was that a five-year reading grant may help in coming years.
