Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker says the state of students in Minnesota is “promising.” That’s in reaction to the just-released, first-of-its-kind North Star Accountability report. According to the report, just over 83% of all Minnesota students graduated high school in four years–the highest rate on record. The number of American Indian students taking the ACT has more than doubled since 2014 and ACT participation for black students has increased 70% between 2014 and 2018. The report also shows that persistent gaps between student groups remain largely the same from 2018 to 2019. For American Indian students, 57.6% consistently attend at least 90% of school days, compared to 78.8% of Hispanic students and 91.3% of Asian students. 2019 math achievement rates dipped slightly for all students in 2019, with rates for each individual student group following suit. Reading achievement rates held steady from 2018 to 2019, and gaps between student groups remained much the same. Ricker says those gaps “need to be closed.” There are 889,304 students being served by public school districts in Minnesota. You can find a link to the full report here.