The Nebraska Department of Education released the NeSA results to the public yesterday. I was very disappointed with our student performance because it doesn't correlate to other assessments that the students have taken, particularly in mathematics. It is apparent that several of our students are not taking these tests seriously. Otherwise how can you explain a student scoring at "exceeds the standard" in reading last year and scoring "not met" the standard in reading this year? Poor test results could eventually place schools on the PLAS list (persistently low achieving schools) which is not where we want to be.
These results are published on the internet, and this year's results are embarrassing.
It has been suggested that counting NeSA as a test grade would improve the effort, but I am opposed to that because grades should reflect the learning that takes place in that classrooom. But we may have no other alternative.
Hopefully students and staff will become more aware of the importance of performing well on state assessments and we will get a better effort this year.
