After dropping in 2013, Minnesota students’ performance on state proficiency tests this year held largely steady or showed modest gains across grade levels.

While nearly all student subgroups also saw slight increases, the progress made little dent in the state’s sizeable achievement gap that has persisted for years between minority students and their white peers.

Cumulative results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments — known as the MCAs — released Monday by the state Department of Education indicate Minnesota’s students are on the right educational track, Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” Cassellius said. “To move an entire state, we are talking hundreds of thousands of students. … So to see this overall trend is really, really good.”

The 2014 tests measured how students fared on their second attempt at a more rigorous reading test, which was introduced last year.

Meanwhile, 11th graders faced a new math test, which also was considered more challenging.

Statewide, about 61 percent of students proved proficient in math, about the same as last year. Reading rose from 58 percent in 2013 to 59 percent. Science scores also rose — from 52 percent to 53 percent, according to a Pioneer Press analysis of the data.

The tests measure students’ ability to meet reading, math and science benchmarks.

The biggest leap was in fifth-grade reading, where proficiency climbed to 68 percent, 4 percentage points higher than last year.

The state fared the best in third-grade math with about 72 percent of students considered proficient, a score unchanged from 2013.

The lowest scores were posted in eighth-grade science, where only 45 percent of students tested proficient — up from 44 percent.

Also coming in at the bottom was 11th-grade math. About 51 percent of students were considered proficient on the new test, which state educators said will serve as the future baseline.

As shown by the dip in scores after the reading test was introduced in 2013, teachers and students will need time to adjust to the new math test, Cassellius said.

“These are very tough tests that require higher order thinking,” she said. In St. Paul Public Schools, MCA results and the district’s scores showed only slight changes from recent years; they fell about 20 percentage points behind statewide scores in each subject.

Within the district, the gap in scores between white and minority students remained large and intractable.

About 40 percent of the students tested proficient in math, a 4 percentage point drop from last year; students in the 11th grade took a new test this year, which might have affected their scores. Reading, with an overall proficiency of 38 percent, rose 1 percentage point, and science, with an overall proficiency of 28 percent, also rose a point.

Christine Osorio, SPPS chief academic officer, said widespread but one-time changes in the district might explain at least part of why students didn’t make more progress.

Because attendance zones were redrawn to cut back on busing, about 14,000 students changed schools.

And sixth grade, rather than being the last year of elementary school, was shifted to middle schools, which was a big transition for those students, Osorio said.

The district racial mix is about 23 percent white, 30 percent black, 30 percent Asian, 14 percent Latino and 2 percent American Indian. The test score gap between the white group, which had the best scores, and the black group, which had the worst, was 44 percentage points in math and 48 percentage points in reading.

Mitch Pearlstein, president of the Center for the American Experiment, a conservative think tank, said the educational gaps between whites and minorities were staggering even 35 years ago, when he worked on a dissertation that included the topic.

People are aware of the gap, Pearlstein said, but frequently they’re taken aback when they realize the enormity of the difference.

“I think we have a long way to go,” said Jonathan May, the data and research director at Generation Next, a nonprofit organization focusing on the achievement gap by finding best practices and encouraging districts to use them.

“It brings a certain urgency to our work. Based on the initial proficiency rates, it doesn’t look like any gaps are being reduced” statewide.

The St. Paul district is trying a number of measures to help minority children do better in school, including providing culturally relevant texts and using classroom libraries to encourage reading, Osorio said.

And the district does want to close the achievement gap, “but that’s not at the expense of our high-performing group,” Osorio said.

Many of those students are white, and at 69 percent proficient overall in math and 73 percent proficient overall in reading, their scores are as nearly as good in math and better in reading than statewide scores for white students.

After a slew of changes in recent years to better align tests with career and college expectations, Cassellius said she hopes the new versions will be used for a while.

“It’s our hope we now have our assessment system in Minnesota solid,” Cassellius said, pointing out the state’s tests are among the most rigorous in the nation.

She said she’s optimistic students will improve steadily, with the pace quickening as new education initiatives such as everyday kindergarten take root.

One goalpost the state has its eye on is the achievement gap between minority students and their peers, which it aims to cut by 50 percent by 2017.

No notable dent was made this year; however, officials say other measures indicate progress, such as some national assessments.

While nearly every subgroup saw slight improvement, most students of color continued to trail white students between 31 and 37 percentage points in math, about 30 percentage points in reading and between 33 and 38 percentage points in science.

Asian/Pacific Islander students alternatively, lagged between 9 and 16 percentage points behind, slightly narrowing the gap between their white peers.

Black students remain the furthest behind and saw the least change over last year’s scores, though the group’s reading scores improved from 32 to 33 percent proficient.

White students also saw their scores climb by a percent or two, negating most of the gains made by other student populations.

The only subgroup that did not show improvement was English Language Learners. That group’s scores held steady but dipped a percentage point in science to 10 percent proficient.

The persistent achievement gap highlights the importance for broader policy changes across the education landscape, such as allowing districts to hire top teachers from other states even if they lack Minnesota teaching licenses, said Daniel Sellers, executive director of MinnCAN, an educational advocacy group supportive of education reform.

While the results brought tempered good news, they provide an unreliable “snapshot” for educators, said Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota.

“It’s really nice to get a pat on the back but it’s (essentially) a compliment for building better bubble fillers,” Specht said.

“We know when we teach for the tests it’s really not what’s best for learning.”

Sellers disagreed, saying the tests serve as a good indicator for students’ graduation rates and success in post-secondary programs.

Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539. Follow her at twitter.com/hornsarah. Debra O’Connor can be reached at 651-228-5453. Follow her at twitter.com/DebOConnorPP.