FAIRMONT – The Minnesota Department of Education has released its most recent School Report Cards. State test results, graduation rates and regular attendance are considered and presented as a snapshot of the school for a given year.

For Fairmont School District, the cumulative result in Math and Reading decreased. Down from 38.8 percent in 2023, 36.7 percent of students met the Math standard via the MCA test, and 40.1 percent met the standard in Reading for 2024, down from 47.1 percent in 2023. Science stayed relatively the same, from 33.2 percent in 2023 to 33.6 percent in 2024.

The graduation rate for 2024 was 87.8 percent, with 122 students graduating. Fairmont has been in the 87 to 88 percent range since 2021. Eighty percent of students attended more than 90 percent of their school year, above the 74.5 percent statewide metric.

Superintendent Andy Traetow said, like any school district in Minnesota, there are areas to improve.

“Part of our school’s vision statement is to be committed to that relentless pursuit of continuous improvement, regardless of what our scores say,” he said. “Our goal is to meet the needs of every one of our students, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds, and we’re going to continue to do things to move that forward.”

The state assessment is a snapshot of student learning, not the full picture according to Traetow.

“The most important context of any of our students learning is what they do with it and how they apply it beyond the test,” he said. “We’re very focused on that aspect moving forward. That’s something the data sets don’t show is what our kids can do with the knowledge and information they have.”

Regarding the regular attendance figure, Traetow said the goal is to make school a place students want to be.

“Directly and indirectly, support our kids being in our buildings and engaging interpersonally to receive their education and engage with their learning,” he said. “Ideally, every one of our kids attends school every day. There are a variety of factors that impact to have 77 percent of our students attending 90 percent of the time.”

Looking forward, Principal of Curriculum and Instruction Kim Niss said elementary, special ed and multilingual teachers are undergoing LETRS Science of Learning training and curricular review to implement it. The Math curriculum was recently changed, and they are continuing to monitor the results and find new growth areas.

For Martin County West School District Math leveled out, Reading increased and Science decreased. Reading went from 42.3 percent to 46.7 percent of students meeting standards, Science went from 35.3 percent meeting standards to 31.6 percent and Math went from 48.9percent to 47.8 percent.

The graduation rate fell from 98.3 percent to 88.7 percent, with 47 students graduating in 2024. Superintendent Cori Reynolds said, with graduating classes as small as theirs, only five students not graduating on time was all it took to throw the percentage that far. She said since then, two of those five have achieved their GED with MCW but that was not reflected in the results.

Consistent attendance was exhibited by 79.4 percent of students, nearly 5 percent ahead of the state average.

With the state testing numbers, Reynolds said there are limitations to what they can represent but they’re a good picture of where the district is.

“We’re gaining some ground back in reading,” she said. “Math is substantially similar to where we were last year or the year before. I think it’s great because we were implementing a new math curriculum. What we expected to see was less success among our students, just because of the transition. To be very similar to where we were before tells me that our efforts are working.”

Considering these and other numbers garnered by the district, Reynolds said they will continue to make moves based on results.

“We work very hard to make our instructional decisions based on data, especially those system-wide decisions,” she said. “We expect to continue to do that and keep working to update our curriculum, to make sure we have a guaranteed and viable curriculum for every student.”

Reynolds said their intervention programs have shown success for elementary students in reading by looking at students’s skills and grouping students at similar stages together. She said she’s looking to test that structure in the junior high soon.

Granada-Huntley-East Chain (GHEC) also had one subject level out, one showed progress and one had a decrease. Students meeting Math standards jumped from 23.4 percent to 25.8 percent, those meeting Reading standards went from 38.7 percent to 37.9 percent, and Science went from 29.4 percent to 23.5 percent.

With a graduating class of 21, GHEC had a 95.5 percent graduation rate, compared to 90 percent in 2023. They also had the highest percentage of students consistently attending school in the three districts, with 82.7 percent.

On the state test results, Superintendent Doug Storbeck said they are not where they’d like to be.

“We want to continue to improve on the number of students meeting the math, reading, and science standards,” he said. “We have a hard-working staff that’s analyzing not only the content that they deliver, but how they deliver it, and teaching styles.”

The kindergarten, first, second and third graders during COVID-19 missed the in-person instruction Storbeck said is more beneficial. Catching those up who are a bit behind because of that is another factor Storbeck cited in the results.

“We take pride in identifying students below grade level and trying to get them up to grade level,” he said. “We’re going to be doing that both in the middle school and the high school this upcoming year, particularly with regards to reading interventions.”

While the state testing results offer a piece of information, Storbeck said having a small school district has allowed more direct intervention and better district-parent-student communication. To reinforce positive results, Storbeck said they have rewarded students for progress and hard work.

“We like to recognize our students for their achievements,” he said. “We keep track of how they do throughout the year and give annual awards. We recognize students for their growth in both math and reading. We don’t just focus on students who are achieving the highest. We look at students’ growth throughout the year.”

To view the school report cards, visit https://rc.education.mn.gov/#mySchool/p–3 and type in the school district of your choice.