Freeman Performs Well On NeSA-R Assessment

by Bob Michl

August 25, 2010

In the spring of 2010, Freeman Public Schools, along with every other public school in Nebraska, engaged in taking Nebraska’s first ever state-wide test in reading. It was called the NeSA-R (Nebraska State Accountability-Reading). The results of these tests have been tabulated and analyzed by the Nebraska Department of Education and reported back to us.

In past years, every district in the state has had the option to write and implement their own (local) state assessments. At Freeman, we conducted STARS testing per Nebraska Department of Education guidelines. While Freeman always scored very high on these tests, the testing didn’t allow us to compare how our students were doing in relation to other schools and other students, as there were as many tests being given as there were schools taking tests.
NeSA-R now replaces STARS.

With the NeSA-R test, every student in a Nebraska public school took the same test. This was a mandate from the Nebraska State Legislature. While there were concerns about high stakes testing because the NeSA-R was a one time, drop-in and check of student performance on state reading standards, it is fair to say that, as a whole, Freeman students performed well on the test.

NeSA-Reading results provide useful information to adapt reading instruction with the goal of improving student reading skills over time. These test scores also provide another effective tool to improve instruction for every child. Even so, no single test score can tell the full story about the performance of an individual student or a school or district. We will use not only NeSA-R results, but continue to use results from DIBELS testing for elementary students and NWEA testing for all students in grades 3-11.

Freeman will be using these initial year scores as benchmark scores for the future. Our goal as a district is to continue to improve on these scores and to strive for 100% of our students to meet these goals. In addition, we will also be conducting NeSA-M (math) testing in addition to NeSA-R in the spring of 2011, and we will add NeSA-S (science in the spring of 2012) to the list of state testing.

Freeman continues to place an emphasis on outstanding instruction and strives for each student to reach his/her maximum potential. If you have any questions or concerns in interpreting the data or have any questions in general, please feel free to contact the school.