Student Engagement Explorer
Student engagement is more than a test score. This explorer asks two related questions: Are students showing up, and do they feel connected when they are there? It combines consistent-attendance data, student-reported experience, current family perspective, and adopted district engagement targets.
How to read this tool
Attendance: Higher consistent-attendance percentages mean a larger share of students attended more than 90 percent of enrolled school days. The historical display uses only independently verified values and does not interpolate through COVID-era gaps.
Student voice: Survey questions are converted to favorable-response percentages. Agreement questions use Agree + Strongly Agree; frequency questions use All of the time + Most of the time; and the skipping measure uses the share reporting no unexcused full-day skipping in the previous 30 days.
Methodology and sources
Consistent attendance: MDE defines consistent attendance as attending more than 90 percent of enrolled school days and reports it as a North Star accountability indicator. The 2016-2018 Forest Lake district values shown here were extracted from MDE North Star files. The latest 2024 district and student-group values are MDE data independently reproduced by GreatSchools. Minnesota's current Report Card attendance report is also linked below.
MDE Accountability Indicators | Minnesota Report Card | MDE-sourced 2024 attendance display
COVID-era comparability: The explorer does not connect the pre-COVID attendance series to COVID-disrupted accountability years. Minnesota altered or suspended normal accountability calculations during the pandemic, so blank space is more accurate than an artificial continuous line.
2016 student voice: Forest Lake values come from MDE's 2016 Minnesota Student Survey district tables. Minnesota comparison values come from the corresponding 2016 statewide tables. The survey was voluntary and administered to grades 5, 8, 9 and 11.
2016 Minnesota Student Survey - Forest Lake District Tables
2016 Minnesota Student Survey - Minnesota Statewide Tables
Current family perspective: Forest Lake Area Schools publishes annual family-survey summaries for 2022 through 2025. This explorer uses the district's qualitative summary and does not estimate percentages from image-only graphics.
Forest Lake Area Schools Family Survey Results
District goals: Attendance, activity-bus, cross-district participation and peer-connection targets come from Forest Lake Area Schools' FY2027-2029 Achievement and Integration Plan.
