The results of the 2012-13 MCA’s were released today to much fanfare – -and excuses.

The passing scores dropped significantly. One source said that reading proficiency of white students went from 82% last year to 65% this year.

The excuses? That these are “harder” tests based on the Common Core standards.

“These are two completely different tests, kids are asked to do completely different types of tasks on this test, but it’s a much more challenging and difficult test.”

– Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota Education Commissioner

Basically, that means the definition of “proficiency in reading” changed from last year to this year. How is that fair to kids? Some kids will take a look at these scores and be really distressed. Other kids will seem indifferent — but do you really think they are? How could this possibly make kids want to work harder? The kids who are used to scoring in the top percentiles may or may not be impacted, but you can be sure that a kid who was always “Proficient” before and now isn’t is going to feel this and be demoralized.

It just confirms to me that these tests are ridiculous and a waste of time. Please, spend more time teaching my kids instead of testing them.