“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

What in the world does that quote have to do with adequate yearly progress? Well, there is another saying:

“One comes to believe whatever one repeats to oneself sufficiently often, whether the statement is true or false. It comes to be a dominating thought in one’s mind.” — Robert Collier

The annual report card for Minnesota public education is at hand and almost half — yes, I said half — of Minnesota’s schools are performing badly, according to the results.

Some of our schools have gone off the list of “needs improvement” and many will be going on the list for the first time while others will be in their second or third year and will incur mandated sanctions.

It is like a self-fulfilling prophecy — you design a system of tests to identify weaknesses and your outcome will be categorical failures. Then label the failures just that — “fail.” Repeat it enough and the community, parents and students start to believe that they and their schools are failures as well.

So how did Albert Lea Area Schools do? As I write this column, I can honestly say I do not know all of the details. Do I care how we did? Yes. But why? The reason I care is two-fold.

First, and most importantly, I care, like all of the staff members in the district, about every child in this district. The educational and social growth of each child is the business and primary focus of Albert Lea Area Schools. We take their failures personally and are just as proud as you are when they succeed.

Therefore, whatever the results are, we know we will have mixed emotions. However, we know from the numerous tools used to gauge our student’s progress that the students of our district have made some fantastic strides at all levels, and because of these tests, we know areas where each student needs additional support.

The second reason I care is that the district needs to know where it is succeeding and, just importantly, where it needs improvement. That is the reason why we test. The various state, national and classroom content assessments provide the data we need to do our job. Analyzing the data specific to an individual student’s needs is an important component of the district’s move toward individualizing our approach to educating each student rather than students as a whole group as we did in the past.

However, instruction and testing is not the cure-all for content proficiency and individual success. Desire, maturity, environmental and socio-economic factors also play a critical role in the development and achievement of our students.

We cannot test these fundamentals or factors of success. We can only influence them, like you.

It is like the child whose wagon is stuck in the mud. You can choose to stay in the wagon or get out and help push.

How can you help? First, become informed, know what the test results really mean, ask questions, hold your district personnel accountable, volunteer or better yet be a mentor, and become involved.

If that is not possible, be a positive, supportive voice in the community for education by telling our students that they matter and will succeed. You will be surprised the effect that message will have on their personal achievement.

Bill Leland is the chairman of the Albert Lea Area Schools Board of Education.