Delano named top 10 district

Posted on: Sep 7, 2018

Delano named top 10 district

For the second straight year, the national school evaluation website SchoolDigger.com has named Delano Public Schools one of the top 10 districts in Minnesota.

In rankings released on Thursday, Aug. 30, Delano maintained its No. 9 position out of 440 districts that were analyzed. Five of the top 10 districts in the ranking were charter schools, with Delano fourth among traditional public school districts. Delano also ranked No. 9 last year and was No. 12 in 2016.

“We’re very proud to consistently be one of the top performing school districts in the state, and we will continue to make every effort to provide a world-class education for all of our students,” said Delano Superintendent Matt Schoen.

To calculate its rankings, SchoolDigger gathered results from the 2017-18 MCA tests in math, reading and science, then put those numbers through a formula to determine a more comparison-friendly average standard score.

Neighboring districts included Orono (5), Westonka (13), Rockford (61), Wayzata (64) Watertown-Mayer (75) and Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose (82).

In regard to the rankings, SchoolDigger acknowledged that test scores alone are a limited measure of success.

“We would be the first to argue that this is not the ultimate way to rank schools and that there are certainly many, many more criteria – objective and subjective – that add to, or subtract from, the overall quality of a school,” said a statement on the website. “But we believe that listing schools by test scores is useful, and as a tool should be used by parents in conjunction with all the other criteria available.”

For complete results and further explanation of the methods used in the rankings, see www.schooldigger.com.

Top 10 in Minnesota

  1. St. Croix Preparatory Academy
  2. Eagle Ridge Academy Charter School
  3. Mahtomedi Public School District
  4. Yinghua Academy
  5. Orono Public School District
  6. Nova Classical Academy
  7. Spectrum High School
  8. Minnetonka Public School District
  9. Delano Public Schools
  10. Edina Public School District