Dept. of Education releases state testing results

Nebraska’s Department of Education released the results of the 2020-21 testing required for all public schools statewide. 

But don’t expect to go to the department’s website and pull up the results with a single click on the front page. 

Instead, this year’s results can only be accessed on the website by first clicking on the “COVID-19 Special Report” link and then scrolling all the way to bottom of the report. 

The department wants visitors to understand that the 2021-22 testing results were no doubt affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

They preface the report in this manner:

“Information gleaned from Nebraska Student Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) helps identify areas where we most need to accelerate learning opportunities for our students. 

“Similarly, participation data provides demographic information about who did and did not take the assessment in light of COVID-19 learning conditions and should be considered in context when reviewing the results.”

Could that be jargon for “test results for 2021-22 weren’t as good as expected?”

Typically, the results of NCSAS tests are released in mid-September but were delayed until just recently. 

The special report outlines all of difficulties schools, teachers and students experienced as a result of the pandemic. 

The report also states that “direct comparisons of assessment data with previous years is not appropriate for many reasons” which are listed in the report. 

In fact, the 2019-20 tests were not even administered because Gov. Ricketts closed all schools, with most closing right away in mid-March 2019. 

Testing is normally done in the spring but students never returned to the classroom until the fall of 2020. 

Results key agenda item

Perkins County Schools administrators told board members at the November meeting they were still awaiting release of the 2020-21 test results. 

Now that they are available, review of the results will be a key agenda item at next Monday’s regular meeting held in the library beginning at 6 p.m.

Ben Jones, junior high and high school principal, said an early preview of the results shows some good things. 

He said this proved to be a tumultuous time for everyone and felt the school weathered it well and provided some good education, despite the challenges. 

People wanting to see the results prior to next Monday’s meeting can go online to www.education.ne.gov/  and follows the links shown above.