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Secretary’s Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer, Secretary
South Dakota Department of Education

Vital signs look good

When you visit the doctor’s office, one of the first tasks at hand is to check your vital signs. These exams may include some blood work and a blood pressure check. Once the doctor has a chance to examine those basic measures, he or she can tell if you are enjoying good health.

Education has vital signs as well. As a Department of Education, we are reviewing our state’s vital signs to determine the health of our K–12 educational system. If I were a medical doctor, I would pronounce the patient “healthy” after reviewing the exams we use to determine our students’ achievement levels. 

First of all, we have the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam that is given to most 4^th and 8^th graders in the nation. The exam is given every other year (the last exam was given in spring 2003) and focuses on reading and math achievement. South Dakota’s 4^th graders ranked in the top 10 in the country, and our 8^th graders ranked among the top five states nationwide. We are pleased with these results, and I believe they tell an interesting story about how South Dakota students fare at the national level.

Secondly, our Dakota Step results have been returned to the schools. At the state level, we saw significant gains in overall reading and math. In math, 71 percent of students were proficient or advanced (up from 59 percent last year), and in reading, 77 percent were proficient or advanced (up from 71 percent). In addition, each subgroup (special education, minority, limited English proficient and low income) saw improvements at the state level. Clearly the hard work of our state’s educators was evident in this year’s results.

Finally, our ACT scores from the 2004 spring testing period were released. Our scores rose from 21.4 to 21.5 as a state. While about 40 percent of the nation’s students take the ACT, 75 percent of South Dakota students take this exam. This is significant since three of every four South Dakota students take the exam, and yet, we are still significantly above the national average of 20.9.

As educators, we are often asked if our schools are good. If we say, “yes,” people want to know how we know. I would encourage you to review our educational vital signs with the people in your community. Let them know that South Dakota’s educational system is in great health!