1999 Children's report card

ASSESSING PROGRESS
Trends are gauged as positive in 20 of the 26 indicators if the data shows a consistent decrease over time. Trends are considered to be negative when the data consistently increases. Trends are rated just the opposite for six indicators -- on-time immunizations, third-grade assessment, basic standards, high school graduation, exercise and volunteer work. For these six, trends are ranked positive when the data increases, and negative when it decreases. Any indicator showing a slight or unclear data change is judged to be stable or mixed.

Calculating trends is more challenging for the 11 indicators from the Minnesota Student Survey, a statewide questionnaire of public school students. These 11 indicators present data for ninth- and 12th-graders. Positive and negative trends are noted only when the data consistently changes in the same direction for both grades. For example, when data showed positive results for one grade but not the other, the indicators were judged to be mixed. The same criteria was used for judging the multiple components of the basic standards and third-grade assessment indicators, which include various scores.

The indicator about child abuse and neglect was analyzed using additional data from Minnesota Milestones 1998. A mixed trend emerges from the eight years of data instead of an overall decrease shown by the 1999 Children's Report Card. This is the only case where additional information was necessary to clarify the trend.

Many report card indicators are expressed as rates. Unless stated otherwise in the technical notes, these rates use official population estimates from the U.S. Bureau of the Census released on September 4, 1998. Because official estimates are revised annually, some of the rates in this report differ from those used by other organizations and by Minnesota Planning in previously published reports. Changing population estimates also mean that slight shifts in indicators are not likely to represent meaningful change.

Of the 26 indicators in the Children's Report Card, 15 use data from a variety of state and federal sources while the remaining indicators are based on data from the Minnesota Student Survey, administered by the Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning.

Technical problems? Contact: andrew.koebrick@state.mn.us