A decrease in Park reading Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores is causing new methods to be created for MCA preparation.

Last year, the MDE reworked the reading MCA, causing test scores to fall across the state. In the past year, reading scores at Park dropped 24 percent from the scores in 2012 while the state scores fell an average of 14.4 percent.

According to deputy director of communications at the MDE Keith Hovis, the assessment changed because of the decision to base its tests off the stan- dards set by the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Common Core is a national organization which aims to classify students’ math and reading skills as they move from grade to grade.

Hovis said the new standards are much more intense than those of previous years and he believes the new criteria will help prepare students for college testing.

“The standards this year are much more rigorous and college and career aligned,” Hovis said. “We are asking much harder questions and in a differ- ent way.”

According to Hovis, the MDE is try- ing to move away from high school level material because high school students do not find the material sufficiently challenging.

Hovis said he believes community members should not worry about the dif- ficulty of the test and this year’s low test scores. He said the scores will improve as students become better prepared for future tests.

“It takes time for teachers to get ac- customed to the new standards since they have been teaching students based on previous standards for multiple years,” Hovis said. “As they receive these test results, they should use them where to focus their efforts and adapt their instruction.”

Hovis said he doesn’t want teachers to take offense to the low test scores. They should be a lesson for future years.

“These past results are supposed to inform educators on how they can bet- ter prepare students for next year’s exam in order to improve test scores,” Hovis said.

Some students have ideas for teachers that should help prepare them for the MCAs.

Junior Nadia Mohammed said she believes teachers should give MCA examples to students in order to improve test scores.

“Every teacher should give students MCA reading prompts five minutes in the beginning of class and at the end of class so students can practice,” Mohammed said.

Achievement Program Advocate Lee- Ann Stephens said she believes the reading scores were so low last year because of the limited reading done by students outside of class.

“Students don’t read enough,” Stephens said. “If students read outside the school, like the newspaper, or more in school their scores would be better.”