Perham-Dent Public School District Remains Above Statewide Average in Testing Results

PERHAM (KDLM) – After a couple of unique years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Perham Public Schools remain above the statewide average in a majority of areas, according to state testing results released by the Minnesota Department of Education.

Overall, the district was above the state average in math, reading and science. The district was well above the state average in science. “We are proud of the academic achievement of our students in Perham-Dent Public Schools,” Perham-Dent Superintendent Mitch Anderson said. “As a whole, we scored above the state proficiency average in all three test subject areas.”

Perham Public Schools tested at 46.8% proficiency in Math, compared to the statewide average of 44.8%. The district is above the statewide average of proficiency in reading and science as well.

“Like we do every year after state assessment results are released, we now start to dig deeper into the data to target areas that need improvement, but also celebrate the areas we performed well in,” Anderson said. “Our science scores continue to amaze me every year. This year, our District exceeded the state proficiency average by 14.5%, highlighted by our eighth grade with a 53.7% proficiency compared to the state average of 28.6%.”

Perham High School

Perham High School made quite the jump in math for 2022. The school tested at 49.5%, which was up 12.4% from the previous year. Perham High School saw an increase of 1.5% in testing involving reading from the previous year. Perham High School tested at 65% in 2022.

However, the school saw a dip in testing in science in 2022 compared to the previous year. Science dropped from 58.8% in 2021, compared to 54.9% in 2022, which was still above the statewide average of 43.1%.

Prairie Wind Middle School (PWMS)

The Prairie Wind Middle School was above statewide average in two of the three areas of testing for the 2021-22 season. PWMS was well above statewide average in proficiency in reading and science. Science hit 57.1% in 2022, which was 15.8% higher than the state average. It was highlighted by the results from the eighth grade science classes taught by recently retired teacher Rondi Ulmer. Eighth grade science students tested 25.2% over the statewide average for eighth grade. Math students saw an increase of .7% from 2021, when they tested at 44.4% in 2022. However, that number sits just .4% below the statewide average.

Heart of the Lakes Elementary (HOTL)

HOTL students tested 7.8% higher than the state average in math, which was the result of a new math curriculum that was installed three years ago. Overall, the school tested at 52.6%. The statewide average was 44.8%. Students at HOTL were down 1.3% from the state average in reading for 2022. Students at the HOTL tested at 49.8%, while the statewide average was 51.1%.

A small minority of the student population at the HOTL has been identified as a group needing

improvement on standardized tests. HOTL will receive comprehensive support from the

Department of Education to help close the achievement gap for those students. The school was identified in 2018-19 as well. Since that school year, HOTL adopted a new math curriculum that aligned with the state standards. The school is currently in the beginning stages of analyzing, piloting and eventually adopting a new reading curriculum to align with state standards and will be implementing that new curriculum as soon as the new curriculum has been approved.