The Results are In: NeSA Testing 2011

Imagine that back in 2002, a couple of entrepreneurs decided to start identical businesses. As a part of their business plans, they had to submit, to their shareholders earnings projections and goals over the life of their loans, which come due in 2014. The first business owner projects that by 2014, when his loan is due; his business will show an annual profit of $50,000.  The second owner projects a profit of $1million annually by the due date.

When 2014 rolls around, the first business owner happily announces that his business achieved its goal- a profit of $50,000. The second owner reports that his business fell short of projections- and turned a profit of $900,000-not the $1 million that he had set as his goal.

So, which entrepreneur was most successful: the one who had set a modest goal and made it -or the one who set a lofty goal and fell just short?

This story illustrates the two approaches to high-stakes (state) testing. Do we want to set high goals, such as 100% proficiency, and see how close we can come, or do we want to be satisfied with setting a modest goal and be happy to reach it?

Last year, 2010, Nebraska began state-wide testing in reading using the NeSA Reading Test as a common assessment- for the first time all Nebraska students took the same state test. This year, 2011, the NeSA Math Test has been added and all Nebraska students be tested by the same measures in both Reading and Math.  The state writing assessment has been revamped to allow for more in-depth scoring, so only writing scores in grades four and eight were reported.

In August of each year, schools report their results, and these results become a measuring stick for progress and a way for schools to be compared. So how did we do? Let’s stay with our business comparison and take a look at our annual report to our shareholders, which might look like this:

LCPS Results Reported in % of Students at “Proficient” or Higher
Grade	Reading			Math			Writing
	2010	2011	2012-Goal (AYP)	2010	2011	2012-Goal (AYP)
3	53%	74%	78%	Not Given	96%	67%
4	66%	75%	78%	Not Given	81%	67%	81%
5	60%	48%	78%	Not Given	89%	67%
6	67%	88%	80%	Not Given	76%	67%
7	67%	70%	80%	Not Given	85%	67%
8	79%	50%	80%	Not Given	42%	67%	67%
11	63%	71%	79%	Not Given	67%	61%

In 2010, we reported results that did not exactly thrill our shareholders, and that our board of directors (the School Board) found unacceptable.  Last year, we begin to develop methods to more closely align our district curriculum with the state standards that are being assessed by the NeSA tests.

Results in 2011 showed improvement in most classes in reading and very encouraging initial results in math and writing. Individual results will be sent home to parents during the last week in August. Teachers will review these results with parents at the fall parent-teacher conferences. These are, “snapshot,” measures indicating how our students performed on one test on one day. No one test tells the complete story, and the complete picture of learning can only be clarified by students, parents, and teachers working together in frequent close contact.

Any report to a group of shareholders must contain future goals and projections, and education, like business, often asks, “What have you done for me lately?” Here is our plan to make sure that we continue to achieve our improvement goals and are on target to be one of the schools to achieve 100% proficiency by 2014:

·       Continue  working to make sure that our reading and math curriculums are aligned to state standards

·       Modifying our language program in the elementary grades to introduce, teach, and reinforce key concepts on the state standards.

·       Utilizing the MAP assessment to monitor our progress, guide instruction, and target interventions

·       Providing interventions to student who need to catch up

To be sure, 100% proficiency is a lofty goal and achieving it will take a great effort from all of us. Is it achievable? I would never make the mistake of selling our students and teachers short. Consider the words of NASA astronaut Pete Conrad (the third man to set foot on the moon) who said, “Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.”