Three heavy hitters in Minnesota music — Prince, the Replacements and Hüsker Dü — have new deluxe editions coming to stores and streaming.

Each takes a look back to a key, early career moment in the careers of the musicians who remain influential to this day.

Two of the impending releases have fans grabbing for their wallets, while the third has others wondering who is making the decisions regarding the legacy of one of the state’s biggest musical exports.

Here’s a look at what’s on tap.

‘1985: The Miracle Year’

Who: Bob Mould was a Macalester College freshman when he met Grant Hart, a clerk at St. Paul’s Cheapo Records in 1978. The pair bonded over a shared love of the Ramones and formed Hüsker Dü with Greg Norton, who knew Hart through the record store.

By 1980, the trio was playing clubs in the metro and building an audience with their take on hardcore punk rock, a genre that was starting to emerge across the country. They signed a deal with California indie label SST, which released the band’s “Metal Circus” EP in 1983. By that time, Mould and Hart began dabbling in more melodic songwriting, which spiked interest in the band at college radio stations around the country.

After issuing several more records through SST, including the ambitious double album “Zen Arcade,” the group jumped ship for a contract with Warner Bros. that led to two more releases, “Candy Apple Grey” and “Warehouse: Songs and Stories.” But by the end of 1987, a host of issues including substance abuse led to the end of the band.

A full Jan. 1985 Husker Du concert, recorded at First Avenue in Minneapolis, anchors the upcoming box set “1985: The Miracle Year,” due out Nov. 7, 2025. (Courtesy of the Numero Group)

What: As its title suggests, “1985: The Miracle Year” focuses on an important year in Hüsker Dü’s history, when they were bursting with creativity in the studio and honing their storied live act.

The latter is the focus of “1985,” which features a newly restored concert recorded on Jan. 30, 1985, in front of a sold-out crowd at First Avenue. The set list featured songs from their then-new third studio album “New Day Rising” along with five numbers that would appear on “Flip Your Wig,” which hit stores later that year.

The 23-song set also includes covers of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” (with guest Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum) and “Ticket To Ride, ” the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and “Love Is All Around,” the theme song to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” An additional 20 live tracks recorded at various tour stops that year and a 36-page book complete the package.

When: The four LP set is due out Nov. 7.

‘Let It Be’

Who: The Replacements began in Minneapolis in 1978 when 19-year-old Bob Stinson gave his 11-year-old brother Tommy a bass guitar. The pair soon began playing music with Chris Mars, a high school dropout who started on guitar before switching to drums. Paul Westerberg happened to hear the band rehearsing at the Stinsons’ home and eventually convinced them to take him on as lead singer and guitarist.

In May 1980, Westerberg handed off a four-song demo tape to Peter Jesperson, the manager of the Minneapolis record store Oar Folkjokeopus and co-founder of Twin/Tone Records. The label went on to release the Replacements’ first three albums.

Like Hüsker Dü, the Replacements went on to sign with Warner Bros. via its subsidiary Sire Records. They lasted a little longer, too, issuing four more albums before calling it a day in 1991.

A newly-remastered version of the Replacements’ third album “Let It Be” will be reissued Oct. 24, 2025. It includes a host of previously unreleased material from the album’s recording sessions along with a 28-song performance recorded in Chicago in 1984. (Courtesy of Rhino Records)

What: The Replacements’ third album, 1984’s “Let It Be,” saw Westerberg and his bandmates starting to mature — as much as any of them actually did mature, anyway — and produce now-classic songs like “I Will Dare,” “Unsatisfied,” “Androgynous” and “Answering Machine.” It earned rave reviews and enough industry attention to land the band their aforementioned deal.

A 2008 reissue added six additional rarities from the era and now a further expansion brings 36 more tracks to the party, most of which have never been released. In addition to a host of other studio outtakes, the set includes “Goodnight! Go Home!,” a 28-song concert recorded in Chicago in August 1984.

Sourced from an audience tape and newly remastered, it finds the Replacements previewing songs from the not-yet-released “Let It Be,” early favorites and offbeat covers of “Help Me Rhonda/Little G.T.O.” (originally recorded by the Beach Boys and Ronny and the Daytonas) and Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough.”

When: The set will be available as four LPs and three CDs on Oct. 24.

‘Around the World in a Day’

Who: Prince Rogers Nelson famously signed with Warner Bros. at the age of 18. His contract gave him a level of creative control rare in the industry and the Purple One took advantage of it from the start.

Prince cranked out a new album each year from 1978 to 1981, earning increasingly warm critical response as well as notice for his often outrageous lyrics and attire. His 1979 single “I Wanna Be Your Lover” made it to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the bulk of his early success came from R&B radio.

His 1982 double album “1999” broke Prince to a wide audience, both here in the States and abroad. It made it to No. 7 on the albums chart and produced a trio of smashes in “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious” and the title track.

Two years later, Prince rode that wave to superstardom thanks to his record-breaking “Purple Rain” film and soundtrack. He never matched that success, but he spent the rest of his life recording and touring right up until his tragic death from an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park home/studio in April 2016.

What: While Warner Bros. would have been more than happy to milk the success of “Purple Rain” further into 1985, Prince had his own plans. Just weeks after wrapping his 98-date “Purple Rain” tour, Prince released his seventh album, “Around the World in a Day.”

On it, Prince explored more experimental, psychedelic styles, yet still landed two songs in the Top 10 with “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life.”

Related Articles

Live Reviews: At Farm Aid 40, an 18-act benefit concert visits MN for the first time

Willie Nelson and Neil Young highlight 40th Farm Aid concert

Joyce DiDonato is a thrilling partner as Minnesota Orchestra opens season

The Dakota celebrates 40 years of music and culture with free block party

‘Field of Bands’ fundraiser at Washington County Fairgrounds to aid veterans and troops

In the years since his death, Prince’s estate has issued deluxe expanded versions of “Purple Rain,” “1999,” “Sign o’ the Times” and “Diamonds and Pearls,” each packed with unreleased tracks and live material.

This time around, though, there’s nothing in this reissue that fans haven’t long since heard. The album has been newly remastered, but all the bonus material consists solely of previously released b-sides and remixes along with “4 The Tears In Your Eyes,” a song Prince donated to the “We Are The World” album.

Prince fans immediately expressed disappointment about the lack of material from his fabled Vault, but are holding out hopes for the release of the long-rumored “Parade” deluxe edition.

When: The two CD and three LP sets arrive on Nov. 21. (The vinyl version drops three remixes from the CD.)

If you passed Haley Taylor Schlitz on the streets of St. Paul and saw her hanging out with friends, on the hunt for a sweet treat or walking her miniature dachshund, Liora, she’d look a lot like an average 20-something.

Taylor Schlitz is, however, one of the youngest women and the youngest African American to graduate from law school in the U.S., and from 9 to 5 she’s at her desk, suited up and working on case after case in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Taylor Schlitz was hired as an assistant attorney general, assigned to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, in June 2024, according to the office.

Saying yes to the job meant leaving Fort Worth, Texas, and her family, which was challenging. But it helped that her dad was a big Bud Grant and Minnesota Vikings fan, plus he worked for Delta, so they flew several times to training camp in Mankato and games at the Metrodome.

The opportunity to serve the state was a welcome adventure, she said, and now, at 23 years old, she is the youngest assistant attorney general in the state.

“I just knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work for such an attorney like Attorney General (Keith) Ellison … such a role model and a leader, especially in the legal field,” Taylor Schlitz said.

She also had been looking for opportunities to practice outside of Texas.

“I got the job and, being up here for a year, I can confidently say that this truly is the home I was looking for,” she said.

A lifetime of achievements at 23

As a young adult, Taylor Schlitz’s list of accomplishments surpasses what many achieve over a lifetime. At age 13, she enrolled in undergraduate school. At 16, she completed her studies at Texas Woman’s University and was then accepted into nine law schools.

“That was very validating to get acceptance to nine law schools,” Taylor Schlitz said. “I took pictures of all the acceptance letters and celebrated each one that came in. It was a very proud moment for me and my family.”

In 2019, she and her mother, Dr. Myiesha Taylor, co-wrote the book “The Homeschool Alternative: Incorporating a Homeschool Mindset for the Benefit of Black Children in America,” and she is currently working on her first solo nonfiction book on Gen Z and politics.

Her opinion pieces have been published in media such as the Black Wall Street Times, Insight News and the Minnesota Star Tribune. She was featured in a publication by Beyoncé during Black History Month in 2020, and served as a delegate for then-Vice President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention during the same year.

She currently serves on the board of directors for the Greater Twin Cities United Way, is board chair of the CapitolRiver Council in St. Paul, is a Josie R. Johnson Leadership Academy fellow and the list goes on.

“Haley has a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm, combined with a kind of pragmatism about what’s possible,” CapitolRiver Council executive director Jon Fure said. “One word that people most commonly use when they meet her is that she’s brilliant.”

Taylor Schlitz is the youngest board chair the council has ever had, Fure said, which he said speaks to her leadership qualities.

A gifted child

Taylor Schlitz credits much of her academic accolades to her parents’ decision to pull her out of the Texas public elementary school system.

“It’s just amazing what children can do when we allow them to explore their full abilities and their full potential,” her father, William Schlitz, said.

Schlitz said his daughter showed early signs of advanced intelligence. She’d finish assignments at an impressive speed, was consistently getting straight-A grades and could teach herself entire concepts like geometry.

But Schlitz couldn’t ignore that his biracial, Black daughter seemed to be mistreated in comparison to other students.

He remembers a 10-year-old Haley coming home from school and telling him and his wife how her elementary class reenacted the Civil War. The class split in two for North and South and Haley, the only Black student in the class, was cast as “the mullato slave girl,” Schlitz said.

“Her white classmates turned to her and said, in a mean way, ‘You know, if we were alive back then, I’d own you,’” Schlitz said. “We pulled her out at that moment, because it was clear to us.”

When Taylor Schlitz thinks back to that moment, she thinks about how disruptive it was to her learning, she said. An experience like that can break a student’s ability to engage and comprehend the curriculum, she said.

“I certainly was not learning; much less if I had stayed there longer,” Taylor Schlitz said. “We talk about mental health affecting youth, and that’s where it starts. It doesn’t start in eighth and ninth grade, it starts very young.”

Related Articles

St. Paul looks to rewrite rules around sober housing, supportive housing

Looking for a mentor: Liv

Minnesota Ag Weather Network adds 14 new weather stations throughout state

Live Reviews: At Farm Aid 40, an 18-act benefit concert visits MN for the first time

Scandia ready for Gateway Trail, but landowner raises issue with tunnel

Following that experience, her grades began to drop. She lost her focus, and when she did engage, she was often teased by other classmates for being nerdy, she said. Her parents decided then to homeschool her.

“It was obvious that Texas was becoming a more and more hostile place to Black children in the education system,” her father said.

As a hybrid homeschooled child, Haley would alternate between completing online courses and taking in-person classes at a college preparatory school in Texas.

“I was able to graduate early and go to college,” Taylor Schlitz said. “But deeper than that, I grew as a student and as a person. I knew how I studied best, I managed stress, I changed my measurements of failure and success, and my time-management skills were so incredibly sharp by the time I got to college.”

She’s not the only one, either; her two younger siblings followed in her footsteps, graduating from college at 15 and 16. Her now 17-year-old sister, Hana, is working to get her master’s, and her 19-year-old brother, Ian, is pursuing a doctoral program, which he’ll finish in a year.

From education to justice

Initially, after graduating from college, Taylor Schlitz wanted to be a doctor like her mother, an emergency medicine physician. Her experience with early higher education, however, swayed her in a different direction.

She was fortunate enough to have parents who recognized her academic abilities at a young age, she said, and recognized that not all children are given the same opportunities.

Haley Taylor Schlitz in the Minnesota Department of Public Safety office in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“So, how many students are we overlooking?” Taylor Schlitz said. “How many future leaders, doctors or lawyers are we … not doing the service we could be because they just don’t have that same knowledge or opportunity?”

The year after graduating from law school, Taylor Schlitz taught a fifth-grade history class for two years in Texas to gain hands-on experience in the classroom that would benefit her long-term aspirations of working in education policy.

“I was right and the experience was invaluable, for me to have my boots on the ground and for me to have my own personal experiences in the classroom with the teachers every single day,” Taylor Schlitz said.

Serving Minnesota

In her role as assistant attorney general, Taylor Schlitz represents the state and works with law enforcement, handling cases primarily related to road safety, driver and vehicle services, and drinking and driving.

Attorneys like her, working in different divisions, come to work in the office to “serve the people of Minnesota and the state to ensure Minnesota is greater, safer and continues to grow,” she said.

Her work has offered her a unique opportunity to learn about the Twin Cities landscape, roads and law enforcement. A fast-paced work environment, she said, she finds exciting.

“I went into the legal field and wanted to be an attorney to advocate for equity and justice, and that includes in the public safety realm,” Taylor Schlitz said.

As a Black woman working in public safety, she understands the hesitancy many people of color have when encountering law enforcement, she said, which is why it’s even more important that she is a part of increasing cultural diversity in her field, she said.

“Bring a seat to the table, as they say, otherwise you’re on the menu, right?” Taylor Schlitz said.

Taylor Schlitz said her Black heritage has shaped everything in her life, and it is through that lens that she advocates for justice and equity. Her grandfather, Dwight Taylor, was the second person killed during the Rodney King civil unrest in Los Angeles in 1992. She never got the chance to know him, she said, but his legacy is carried in her family.

“The conversations that are very, very unfortunately common in the Black community are of, ‘just make it home,’ when you get pulled over, ‘just make it home,’ when you get stopped, ‘just make it home,’” Taylor Schlitz said. “Not only did we have that conversation, but it also had that vein of ‘because Grandpa didn’t make it home.’”

She’s able to apply what she learns in her own life and help others do the same, she said. For example, it’s important that people of color know their rights, use their right to remain silent and right to an attorney before speaking to officers if they feel uncomfortable, she said. People should also cooperate with law enforcement orders, she said, because, as she was taught by her family, the number one priority is “making it home safely.”

“I’m so proud of her,” William Schlitz said. “She seems every day to wake up with the passion to be better and make an impact on the world.”

More to come in Minnesota

Living and working in Minnesota is a far cry from Texas, Taylor Schlitz said. At work, and in St. Paul, she feels much more welcomed and appreciated, she said, because her values are mirrored in the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and in many of the state’s citizens.

“I was also desperate and hungry for that home, and that’s what St. Paul has really become for me,” Taylor Schlitz said. “A place where I’m not questioned, a place where my simple existence as a Black woman and my right to be is not being challenged every single day.”

According to Greater Twin Cities United Way President John Wilgers, Taylor Schlitz has great maturity and intelligence, but something equally valuable as a board member is her positive, infectious energy and the ability to represent the needs of Gen Z.

“She brings a solutions perspective … and I think the work that she does probably also provides her with a deep connection to the community,” Wilgers said.

She credits her mother, the most influential Black female role model in her life, for helping her become the person she is today; for giving her the tools to navigate injustice and believe in herself, she said.

Her mentors, her friends, her attorney team and neighbors have helped create a village, or “forest,” that pushes her to achieve greatness, she said. Most of all, both of her parents continue to be a source of inspiration, comfort and support in her life.

“I always encourage people when they ask, ‘How did you get through the hard times?’ … I always tell people to fall back on their village, on their forests, as I like to refer to it, with all the great trees that are in it, with their pearls of wisdom, with their experiences; they, too, have been criticized,” Taylor Schlitz said.

Related Articles

What do the MCA test scores mean and how should parents interpret them?

St. Paul looks to rewrite rules around sober housing, supportive housing

Joe Soucheray: The fraud continues, but Walz thinks he’s earned another term

Playwrights’ Center officially opens new St. Paul home with a Saturday community celebration

St. Paul: West 7th Street reopened after sinkhole closed area for 4 months

Taylor Schlitz will continue to grow in her current position as assistant attorney general, defines herself as a lifelong learner and would like to one day start her own law firm.

“Running for office is definitely on the radar, maybe in the near future, maybe in the far future,” Taylor Schlitz said. “Whatever doors open and stars align.”

When Taylor Schlitz isn’t working on her book, reviewing cases or attending board meetings, she likes to read romance and fantasy novels, paint, play first-person shooter video games, do mind puzzles with friends and attend events at Rice Park in downtown St. Paul.

As Taylor Schlitz has begun to find home in Minnesota, she said she is thrilled to be able to pour herself into the St. Paul community through her various leadership roles.

“St. Paul and Minnesota always hold a place in my heart because it’s the state that gave me a chance,” Taylor Schlitz said.

This story was created in partnership with Power 104.7. To listen to the radio version, visit power1047.fm and click “listen live.”

PATRICIA LOCKWOOD: Bestselling author of “Will There Ever Be Another You” discusses her writing career with Talking Volumes host Kerri Miller. $35. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. Ticket information: mprevents.org.

Devony Looser (Courtesy of Macmillan Publishers)

DEVONEY LOOSER: Presents his tribute to writer Jane Austen in “Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane,” in conversation with Andrea Kaston Tange.  7 p.m. Wednesday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

J.H. MARKERT: Kentucky-based true-crime novelist and screenwriter hosts a meet-and-greet in celebration of his new book, “The Spider to the Fly.” Noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

POETRY AND PINTS: Part of the Cracked Walnut literary festival, this program offers words and brews. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sisyphus Brewing, 712 Ontario Ave., Mpls.

Related Articles

Readers and writers: St. Paul author took a winding road to her first thriller

Books for fall 2025: Luigi, Ozzy and the great beyond

Readers and writers: A top-notch crime thriller leads off these fall gems

Literary calendar for week of Sept. 14

Author hopes ‘deep map’ of the St. Croix River watershed will inspire others

Each year, as they did last month, state officials release scores from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests. But why are the tests important, how are they used and what should parents know about them?

Test results from the 2024-2025 school year showed Minnesota student proficiency levels in math and reading stayed relatively flat from the previous year. Statewide, 45.2% of students met or exceeded standards in math and 49.6% met or exceeded standards in reading, both slightly down from the previous year.

Science test results will be released in the fall, after the first year of instruction following newly revised academic standards.

In St. Paul Public Schools, students’ overall scores for the past school year improved slightly from those of the previous year. About 26.6% of students scored proficient in math and 34.8% were proficient in reading. Last year, about 26% scored proficient in math while 34.1% were proficient in reading.

What are the MCAs?

The MCAs are standards-based assessments. That means they evaluate what students have learned by the end of a grade. But they are one data point that should be considered along with other measures of student learning, according to state education officials. The Minnesota Test of Academic Skills is an alternate assessment given to students with cognitive disabilities.

Students take the reading and math MCA tests in third through eighth grades and once in high school. Science testing is done in fifth and eighth grades and once in high school.

The results are used as a “system check” at the school, district or student group level.

The MCAs gather information about how state academic standards are being taught. Schools can then use the information to improve curriculum and student support. They can also be used by teachers to see where students did well so they can reinforce the ways they teach those skills.

What can parents learn from the MCAs?

MCA scores help officials know if their school is making progress and help the state identify which schools need support, said Michael Rodriguez, dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development. Rodriguez is a psychometrician, meaning he looks at the technical side of test development and scoring.

But, while MCA scores provide progress information to schools, Rodriguez said he doesn’t think individual scores should be the information parents receive when it comes to how their student is doing. Instead, Rodriguez said, student performance levels — Does Not Meet, Meets, Partially Meets, or Exceeds standards — are much more informative.

“The MCAs are really about how the schools are doing,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s really important for us if we’re going to continue to improve and support our schools and identify the schools that need those comprehensive supports.”

On an individual student level, MCAs are not designed to provide the same detailed information about student learning that classroom assessments and other evidence of learning provide, state officials said.

“Parents use the results to help identify where a student is doing well and where they might need more support,” according to the state Education Department. “The performance level (Does Not Meet, Meets, Partially Meets, or Exceeds) can indicate progress in a subject over time, but MCA/MTAS scores cannot be compared across years. Since there is no single assessment that can provide the full perspective of what a student has learned, parents should use additional measures for a more complete picture.”

What’s happening to improve student achievement?

There are several initiatives in Minnesota designed to boost achievement. They include the READ Act, signed into law in 2023, and teacher recruitment and retention programs.

The READ Act aims to have all children reading at or above grade level every year and to support multilingual learners and students receiving special-education services in their individualized reading goals.

In St. Paul Public Schools, there are more than 50 teachers involved in reading intervention across the district. They are sent to specific schools based on identified need, according to Andrew Collins, SPPS executive chief of schools.

“It’s based upon data. What does need look like, and how are we supporting need?” Collins said. “And then how are we also providing some other tailored opportunities for some of our administrators that might be in buildings in which their data looks a little bit different as compared to their colleagues? So it’s supporting everyone and also trying to differentiate support.”

At Jie Ming Mandarin Immersion Academy, which had some of the highest MCA proficiency rates in the district this year, Principal Bobbie Johnson said data is an important part of her school’s success from teachers’ first day.

“I give them the data, not just MCA, also ELL ACCESS data, school climate data,” Johnson said. “We look through the data. We decide as a whole group, what’s moving forward this year, what’s our focus? So I think data-driven, very passionate, very skillful staff (are key). And then the students, the family.”

Opt-outs

Because students are not required to take the MCAs, some families choose to opt out.

At St. Paul Public Schools, 90% of eligible students tested in math and 92% tested in reading. On an individual school level, opt-out rates can be significantly higher and tend to go up as students get older. At SPPS schools, 2024-2025 opt-out rates ranged anywhere from 0% to 40.1% or 100%.

At EdAllies, a nonprofit advocate for historically underserved students, officials tend to focus on fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math student achievement as benchmarks.

“High school is a tough data set to look at, just because there’s just so many opt-outs that even one student not meeting proficiency can skew the data,” said Josh Crosson, executive director of EdAllies.

As an example, Crosson points out a school with a high proficiency rate for a group of students, but less than 50 students in that group.

The more students who participate in the MCAs, the more information districts and schools have to make decisions about how to use money, staff and resources, according to the Education Department.

It’s always the parent’s right to decide to opt out, Rodriguez said, but he said he encourages parents to motivate their kids to do their best on the test “because that’s how we learn about how our schools are doing.”

“When you factor in some of the opt-out rates, it makes comparisons even more difficult because I think people want to compare School A to School B,” Collins said. “And there’s so much more data and so many more layers of data that you really need to understand and look at to get an accurate comparison.”

Looking at the data

MCA results are looked at in different ways – from grade and performance level to student groups like race and age or whether they’re receiving special-education services or are learning English.

“You can look at the average, but the average doesn’t really tell you much about the variation in lots of schools,” Rodriguez said. “There are kids that get the highest scores, but there may be lots of kids that get low scores, and perhaps because they’re learning English, or they’re new to the state, or they move every year. … They are not simply a direct result of what the school is doing. It is all the prior experiences, the prior opportunities and the resources available.”

Schools with lower MCA scores tend to be the most segregated, with the least amount of resources and least-experienced teachers, Rodriguez said. Schools with the highest proportion of English learners also tend to have lower scores, he said.

“But you know what? Those English learners, their reading scores grow faster than anybody else. But of course, they have a lot to grow. So as they’re learning English, their performance is increasing faster than anybody,” Rodriguez said.

It’s not really useful to compare schools based on test scores to decide which one is best because every school has a different composition of students, which can create different challenges, he said.

According to Rodriguez’s research on student achievement, 80% of differences in student performance happens within schools rather than between them. For that reason, breaking down data within a school can help give a better idea of how students are doing, rather than looking at aggregate data, Crosson said.

What can parents do?

Rodriguez said parents should ask their students how their experience was with the test. It’s important for parents to talk with their children about how they’re experiencing school. He asks his own child if he learned anything while taking the exam, what he thought of it and what he thought was interesting or difficult.

Parents’ relationships with teachers can be vital, according to education officials. Having conversations with them also can be an opportunity for parents to ask teachers what other resources and opportunities their child could be receiving, Crosson said.

“So often, kids of color and kids with disabilities who do well on the MCAs aren’t also offered opportunities to advance or excel in high school and then access college-level materials,” Crosson said. “So I think it should pique interest and a lot of questions around parents of both, ‘Why is my child not doing as well as they could be based on the state standards?’ or ‘Can my child have more opportunity?’”

Parents should also consider other aspects of their student’s school experience, such as specialties, opportunities and community, Rodriguez said.

“Test scores are part of the picture, but kind of a small part,” Rodriguez said.

To look up a school and see details on its assessments, staffing and students, attendance rates and more, visit the Minnesota Report Card at rc.education.mn.gov/#mySchool/p–3.

Related Articles

St. Paul: Early voting opens as mayor’s race, school levy overshadowed by high taxes, ‘stagnation’

Boys brought replica guns to St. Paul school, police say

How much will your taxes go up? St. Paul, Ramsey County, SPPS asking for hikes

Belwin opens $3.6M accessible outdoor-education facility with ‘first-class experience’ — for all

St. Paul school board OKs contract with teachers union. Here are the details.