Four years after a coalition of civic, business and education leaders committed to closing academic achievement gaps in the Twin Cities, the task appears as daunting as ever.

At its annual day of reckoning Wednesday at St. Paul College, Generation Next officials reported “achievement levels are low and there are few indications they are improving.”

High school graduation rates for Twin Cities students of color have risen dramatically, as they have across the country; but pass rates on the state’s reading tests are flat, and they are down in math.

Just 38 percent of Twin Cities third-graders of color passed the latest reading test and 37 percent of eighth-graders tested proficient in math. That’s about 20 percentage points behind the state average for each subject.

The group’s executive director, Michelle Walker, who recently left the No. 2 post with St. Paul Public Schools, said the lack of progress is frustrating.

“I felt that frustration very personally every time standardized test scores were announced by the Department of Education,” she said.

“The discouragement was brutal. What were we doing wrong? Why wasn’t it working? And worse, whose fault was it?”

Generation Next’s mission is to identify what is working and scale it up. It has made progress on some building-block indicators, such as early-childhood screenings and quality child care.

A three-year effort funded by the Bush Foundation has raised the number of in-home daycares with three- or four-star Parent Aware ratings to 50 from 33 in the first year and a half.

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As MN schools reopen, parents urged to keep sick kids home to slow COVID spread And 41 percent of Twin Cities 3-year-olds have been tested for kindergarten readiness, up from 33 percent last year.

Other initiatives include training literacy tutors for thousands of students and helping schools identify and support high school freshmen at risk of falling behind on credits.

With the organization’s help, St. Paul’s Johnson, Harding and Washington Tech high schools this year are employing a district data analyst and a new dashboard that enables staff to zero in on students who aren’t on track to graduate on time.

Washington principal Mike McCollor said the grades 6-12 school is getting better at identifying those students and doing something to address it.

“If kids aren’t proficient after seven years, that’s on us. That’s our fault,” he said.

Walker said her staff soon will begin formulating a strategic plan for Generation Next. She expects the six focus areas, from kindergarten readiness to college attainment, will remain the same, but the game plan will change.