State education leaders in Helena last week discussed the myriad of academic challenges facing Montana students and potential remedies to improve student success across the public school and university systems.

The issue of student achievement arose repeatedly during the Montana Board of Public Education’s latest three-day meeting, which often struck a reflective tone as members revisited recent regulatory changes aimed at bolstering K-12 instruction statewide. Many of those changes, such as a new law establishing public charter schools, were referenced as promising works-in-progress, but the proceedings were never far from an acknowledgment that Montana still has work to do toward addressing the needs of struggling youth.

Front and center in that discussion last Thursday was the ongoing achievement gap for public school students in tribal communities throughout the state. A four-member panel dedicated to American Indian student achievement informed the board that while English and math performance among Indigenous high schoolers has gradually surpassed pre-pandemic levels, proficiency among Native elementary and middle school students has declined over the past five years.

The panel’s report, culled from student testing data from the Office of Public Instruction, noted a similar statewide trend among non-Indian students but emphasized the share of Indigenous students struggling with those topics is significantly greater than in other populations.

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Ivan Small, a retired educator and school administrator and enrolled member of the Crow tribe, and his fellow panelists advocated for several strategies to address the issue, including promoting mental health in rural communities, strengthening the relationship between curriculum and local culture, and developing guidance for incoming teachers from outside those communities on how to connect with students. They also stressed the importance of engaging parents and fostering strong local public school leadership, with Small encouraging the state to leverage existing accountability measures to ensure student success.

“What’s working? When you run 90% novice in reading and math, the answer has to be what? Nothing,” Small told the board. “That’s not being flippant, folks. If you look at the scores, what is working in our schools? Nothing. But you have the framework, folks, to have good schools.”

Board Chair Tim Tharp raised the question of racial sensitivity, candidly asking Small how the state could best hold schools accountable without being perceived as telling Indigenous communities how to operate. Small replied that unless Montana is prepared to abandon its current education system, the answer lies in promoting higher expectations among local school leaders and not being afraid to enforce them. Allowing schools to fail their Indigenous students and not expecting those students to learn would be “the highest degree of racism,” Small said.

Languishing test scores statewide fueled broader concern and debate, specifically around math proficiency. According to OPI data, high school math scores were already on the decline before hitting 10-year lows during the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the 2022-23 school year showed signs of a rebound, roughly 70% of high school students were still testing as novice or nearing proficiency.

That presents an ongoing challenge not only for the public school system but also for Montana campuses. Crystine Miller, student affairs and engagement director at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, told the board last Thursday that roughly 30% of incoming freshmen over the past decade have needed some sort of remedial support in math.

“This is probably, in the post-secondary world, the single most important point in a student’s post-secondary pathways,” Miller said. “If students are not successful in those early math courses … their likelihood for success in any pathway — one-year certificate, two-year degree, (career-technical education) fields, four-year degree — is very narrow.”

Miller added that Montana’s university system has adopted a host of strategies to address the issue through professional development, funding and changes to policy and admission standards. But she encouraged the board to consider increasing math requirements at the high school level “so we are not cutting short their ability to pursue whatever career or educational paths they may want.” That recommendation was echoed by Missoula College math professor and student success coordinator Lauren Fern and by Montana State University math department head Elizabeth Burroughs.

Montana is one of three states that requires only two years of math for a high school diploma. The university system has recommended that the board add a required third year to the state’s math standards, which are currently under review by OPI. Tharp said he would “fully support this,” but also acknowledged the challenge it may pose to rural districts, suggesting the topic could be fodder for a future panel discussion.

During an update on the proposed changes arising from that review, OPI Chief Operating Officer Julie Murgel said the “vast majority” of school districts across Montana are already requiring three years of math to graduate despite the state’s two-year minimum requirement. In response, board member and Miles Community College President Ron Slinger speculated that the issue isn’t just about the number of years of math that students are mandated to take. It’s making sure they’re actually proficient, he said, and “we’re failing at that.”

“As I read these stats, it’s just horrifying to actually have that reality,” he continued, citing the latest OPI data on math scores. “I applaud the school districts that are going beyond the minimum, but I think it’s so much deeper than making sure they’re offering this many. Are they being proficient in this? Are students learning?”

OPI has already advanced a major change to the way Montana assesses student performance in English and math. The agency is now preparing for the statewide rollout of a through-year, multi-test model this fall that will replace the longstanding end-of-year assessment approach. The change applies strictly to elementary and middle school students, though OPI has expressed interest in reexamining how proficiency is assessed at the high school level as well.

The board’s proceedings last week featured a packed agenda of other topics, among them updates on Montana’s progress toward establishing a statewide health insurance trust for school districts and the work of the state’s new “community choice school” commission, which remains barred from reviewing any charter proposals while the 2023 law allowing such schools is being litigated. The Board of Public Education also solicited input from several public school districts regarding the performance metrics that will be applied to the public charter schools they’re opening this fall under a separate 2023 law and unanimously granted those schools provisional state accreditation for the 2024-25 school year.

One of those charters — the Jefferson Academy Charter School, a partnership between Jefferson High School and the Youth Dynamics Boulder Day Treatment facility aimed at serving high-risk students — requested a one-year delay in opening, noting that it will not be able to meet a 40-student enrollment requirement this fall. The board unanimously approved the request to move Jefferson Academy Charter School’s opening to the 2025-26 school year.

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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.