When 87% of Duluth’s 9th graders had the reading skills to function as adults

I can’t find DNT’s “Bygones” section in today’s online paper but it reported that on this day 20 years ago:

“About 81% of Duluth ninth-graders have the math skills they’ll need to function as adults and 87% have the necessary reading skills, according to test results released yesterday. More than 90,000 student state-wide took the Minnesota Basic Standards Test in January.”

I had been on the Board for a little over a year on that date and this was a test that has likely changed several times since then so that it is hard to make a comparison with today’s testing results. Still, those sound like pretty good results for kids with just three more years of high school to finish. I’m not sure we could match those results today. If I’m right that’s a sad commentary on our progress.

I will have several other local news related posts to make later this morning. (I’m catching up from a weekend with family and reading history.) This is meant to whet your appetite so come on back when I’ve posted them.

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