Superintendent weighs in on state assessments

McCOOK, Neb. — There are statewide concerns over the new state assessment tool that measures student test scores.

That’s because the state assessment is both adaptive and summative so it doesn’t accurately measure each student’s level of mastery, Superintendent Grant Norgaard told the McCook School Board Monday at its regular meeting.

Because of this, student scores taken from the state assessment don’t reflect student performance results on national standardized testing.

Norgaard first expressed his concerns with the new state assessment tool in February, when he explained how local data did not line up with state assessment data, making it look like students were performing poorly. Norgaard said the state assessments have become overly complicated in their interpretation and application process.

Two board members were absent and excused from Monday’s meeting: board president Brad Hays and board member, Loretta Hauxwell.

Positive comments at the end of the meeting included:

Board member Dennis Berry: the custodial staff has been doing a tremendous job this summer with projects throughout the district.

Board member Tom Bredvick: cited the donations to the school district and the efforts of the school system in getting kids to discover their interests early in life, in the curriculum of career and college readiness. “Nothing that we do is more important than engaging students in their future,” he said.

Board secretary, Mike Langan: likes how the community invests and believes in the school district, citing recent donations as buy-ins from the community. All the projects going on, without excessive spending, shows that the school district is more advanced than other districts. “We have people thinking big,” he said.

Board Vice President Teresa Thomas: recognized the efforts of high school students in the Youth Change Reaction who are working to build a permanent drive-in theater on the fairgrounds. The students need $65,000 for the project and have already received nearly $50,000 in donations and pledges. “The students have a vision of what they want their community to be … and are willing to put in a lot of work.”

School district business manager Jeff Gross: the community-wide wellness initiative is a great collaborative effort among the school, hospital and other partners.

Superintendent Grant Norgaard: thanked Marisa Hoins, special education teacher at Central, for taking over as director of the McCook chapter of the TeamMates mentoring program. Matt Weimers is stepping down as director due to time constraints. Wiemers coaches two varsity sports as well as being the physical education teacher at Central.