Spending costs, test scores detailed in annual report

McCOOK, Neb. — Over the past five years, staffing makes up the majority of expenses at McCook Public Schools at 84.2%. This includes everyone from teachers, bus drivers, principals and custodial.

“So when there’s talk about cutting expenses, it’s people you’re talking about cutting,” said MPS Superintendent Grant Norgaard in his annual report to the McCook School Board Monday night at the regular school board meeting. And when staff is cut, that impacts student learning, he added.

Non-staff budget expenditures, such as fuel, heating, electricity, equipment and textbooks, came to 15.80% in the budget for the past five years.

Norgaard’s report included state assessment scores, locally developed criterion-referenced test (CRT) scores, district demographic information, district expenditures and concerns and successes.

Other financial information Norgaard highlighted included revenue sources to the district, with local and county receipts at 48.8%, state aid at 40.7% and federal aid, 10%. Norgaard also talked briefly on how state aid directly impacts the budget. The more state aid the district gets, the property tax request is lower and the less state aid the district gets, the property tax request is higher. “State aid relates to what we ask for in property taxes,” he said.

Local and county receipts are larger in other school districts around McCook as they do not receive equalization funds from the state, he said.

For state assessments, Norgaard said the current adaptive method of state tests is not as useful as raw scores, which are more reliable and tell you exactly how students are performing. MPS students outscored the state in all the subjects tested, math, English/Language Arts and science, except in fifth-grade science. According to the state assessment, fifth grade science students at MPS scored 3020, compared to the state’s 3084. But that’s misleading, Norgaard said, as MPS fifth-grade science students had a higher proficiency rate than the state, at 84% compared to 66%.

As state assessments make it difficult to pinpoint student achievement, a lot of emphasis has been put on CRT, or criteria reference testing, an assessment designed collaboratively by teachers to measure student performance against a specific set of pre-determined curricula. Data collected can be used to get a quick look at district, school building, grade level, or even student-specific information. A curriculum designed by MPS teachers measures student proficiency and identifies where gaps in understanding may occur.

Every Wednesday, MPS has an early dismissal at 2 p.m. for all schools and that’s when teachers get together collaboratively to discuss and design curriculum and assessments. This includes using data to identify what students are learning, if some students need extra help and sharing teaching strategies so students can be successful. The weekly meeting means data is collected quickly on how students are learning and adjustments can be made to the curriculum in a timely fashion.

Joel Bednar, Central Elementary, told the board that CRT is also helpful when “looking backward,” so teachers know what students have mastered before entering a new grade and McCook High School principal Craig Dickes said it also lets teachers know what areas they’ve done well in and what they need to focus on.

Concerns in Norgaard’s report included some inconsistent data submission from CRT; improvement on ACT scores has stagnated; the college-going rate is lower than desired (72% compared to the state’s 74%); and hiring of properly endorsed teachers due to a nationwide shortage of teachers.