Luverne High School seniors celebrated the start of the school year with the news that their spring MCA math test scores ranked the fifth highest in the state.
The students who tested as juniors in May were 72.1 percent proficient, meaning 72 percent of the class met or exceeded the state’s math standards.
Minnesota’s average for 11th-grade math proficiency is 35 percent and the Luverne juniors scored 37 percent higher than the state average.
“Thirty-seven percent above the state average in 11th grade math is an astronomical number,” Jason Phelps told Luverne School Board members at their Sept. 25 meeting.
Phelps, middle school principal, is the Luverne Schools Assessment Coordinator who presents local Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCAs) test scores to school board members each year.
Scores above 70 percent are ‘rare’
More than 2,000 public and charter schools participate in the state’s MCAs in the spring of each school year.
Luverne’s 11th grade math proficiency of 72.1 percent is “somewhat rare,” according to Anna Kurth at the Minnesota Department of Education.
“Of the 400 LEAs (Minnesota Local Education Agencies) with publicly posted data for high school assessments in any subject, only 34 (8.5 percent) have proficiency levels at or above the 70-percent level,” she said.
At 72.1 percent proficient, Luverne followed Wayzata (80.17 percent), Nova Classical Academy Upper School (78.38 percent), Edina (74.20 percent) and Nicollet (73.33. percent).
Luverne juniors weren’t the only grade level that demonstrated 70 percent or above in math standards proficiency at Luverne Schools.
Grade 4 was 73.3 percent proficient, and Grade 8 achieved 69.3 percent proficiency.
Local scores generally above state averages
Luverne’s 2025 reading and math proficiency scores continued to be above state averages.
The only exception for 2025 is 10th grade reading which dipped to 43.8 percent. The state average is 51.2 percent.
Phelps said he looks at five-year trends in analyzing Luverne’s test scores.
“Sometimes proficiency can be tricky,” he said. “You can jump 10 points if 10 students score three points better. So, there is a fine line sometimes between 50 percent proficient and 70 percent proficient.”
Phelps has noticed Luverne scores rebound quickly.
“We probably handle peaks and valleys a little bit more consistently than what we might see in other school districts,” he said.
“If we dip for a year or a grade level may be a bit lower, we rebound faster.”
However, this is the fourth straight year LHS 10th graders’ proficiency level has fallen under the state average.
To improve instruction methods, Luverne teachers began training in 2023 in the state’s Reading to Ensure Academic Development program or READ Act.
The Act mandates schools use a “science of reading” approach, emphasizing phonics and decoding.
However, Phelps said the biggest boost to Luverne test scores is motivating students to want to do well on the MCAs.
LHS math classes different from others
Luverne High School math teachers Cole Meester, Becky Rahm and Peter Janiszeski credit the new integrated math curriculum phased in five years ago for improved math proficiency in the middle and high school.
As a group, he said the math teachers’ goal is to prepare students to understand and demonstrate proficient math skills by Grade 11.
“We require all kids to take three years of math so they’re exposed (to algebra, geometry, statistics, trigonometry) at least at some level. Whether they completely understand it at a very deep level or an intermediate level, they are exposed to all the math concepts,” Janiszeski said.
“Luverne’s approach is unique among the state high schools,” Rahm added.
“It isn’t what a typical high school does,” she said.
In the past, LHS divided math classes by subject areas into algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, etc. with high school students required to complete two years of math. Once one concept class was completed, students wouldn’t be exposed to the concept again until the MCA test.
Now LHS math classes are offered as Integrated 1, Integrated 2 and Integrated 3 with teachers touching all the math standards beginning in the freshman year and getting progressively more in depth in the sophomore and junior years.
“(The students) are always seeing those skills and how they connect,” Rahm said. “By the end of three years, we’ve connected those standards throughout all those years.”
Besides integration, the math teachers place students in groups to enhance learning.
“We feel the best way to learn is to do and talk math, rather than sit-and-get,” said Rahm.
“They’re going to work problems together and they’re going to try, and they are going to fail. So they keep trying because if you can’t grasp this skill in Chapter 1, you’re going to be hurting in Chapter 3. So, they keep trying.”
Motivating students to do well on MCAs
The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments measure how well students are learning in reading, math and science.
MCAs began in 2005, replacing the Basic Skills Tests (BST).
The tests help schools evaluate curriculum and instruction, identify student strengths and weaknesses, and make decisions about resources from improved instruction and learning for all students.
Reading tests are administered to all students in Grades 3-8 and Grade 11.
Math tests are given to all students in Grades 3-9 and Grade 10.
Science tests are taken in grades 5, 8 and once in high school.
The Luverne High School math teachers try to motivate students to do their best as the spring MCA test approaches.
Meester said he emphasizes the importance of being successful as he instructs math for ninth-graders in preparation for the MCA test in two years.
He said he looks at the Grade 8 math MCA results as he plans lessons for the ninth-graders.
“Because they are coming right to me from eighth grade, so I can have an understanding of who might need more support,” Meester said.
Janiszeski uses “Mindset Mondays” in which he has students focus on being a good person with his sophomore and junior students as preparation for the MCAs.
“Life is not always going to be an easy kind of thing and math isn’t always easy,” he said. “If you think about what’s been the most rewarding to you in your first 16 years, it’s probably the things that you’ve had to work the hardest for.”
Rahm uses competition to motivate her junior students, challenging them to beat their eighth-grade proficiency scores.
“If you do, we will have donuts during class,” she said.
By Mavis Fodness, Star-Herald