At the request of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, Achieve reviewed school improvement efforts in Minnesota from two perspectives. First, Achieve and the Council for Basic Education (CBE) jointly reviewed the state's Profile of Learning, which specifies skills and knowledge students are expected to learn, and the state's support system and accountability policies. Achieve also conducted an intensive study of the quality, rigor and alignment of the 3rd and 5th grade Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) to the Profile of Learning standards for reading, writing and math.

Achieve's review of the MCAs found that the tests in reading and math for 3rd and 5th grades provide a solid foundation for developing statewide assessments at other grade levels. Nearly every test question on the MCAs matches academic content and skills found in the reading and math standards. However, the tests are not as rigorous as Achieve expected them to be — relying on too many easy or superficial questions, instead of including a range of difficult items as well.

Achieve's findings suggest that the state should strengthen the standards to provide clarity, detail and depth. Such a revision would support an assessment that avoids redundancies from grade to grade and a more balanced treatment of essential content and skills.