WC Minnesota News

During the 2022-23 school year, 578 students from 3rd grade took the reading portion of the MCA in Otter Tail County, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

They scored an average of 349, with 52.7% of them considered proficient in the subject.

Data shows that Otter Tail County students from 6th grade had the best reading performance on the test, marking a score of 654 and a proficiency rate of 61.4%.

At the other end of the educational spectrum, 8th grade students scored in the lowest proficiency of the reading portion of the MCA, when 47.5% of them were considered proficient in the subject with an average score of 848.

The number of Otter Tail County students taking the reading portion of the MCA in the 2022-23 school year fell 0.4% from the previous school year.

The MCA is given annually to Minnesota students to determine the academic readiness of students. Not every grade is tested each year, and the scoring scale varies by grade level. These differing score brackets reflect the varying complexity and expectations at different educational stages.

Analysis from the the Nation's Report Card showed math and reading scores have fallen significantly in the last decade. Science scores have been steady in recent years.

Grade	Number of Students Tested	Considered proficient in Reading (%)
3	578	52.7%
4	531	50.3%
5	570	59.8%
6	534	61.4%
7	678	53.9%
8	623	47.5%
10	586	55.7%