NeSA Results for Chadron Middle School

November 20, 2012

Dear Stakeholders,

This fall Chadron Middle School celebrated our students’ NeSA scores, and while there was a lot to celebrate we also have some areas where we need to improve.  Now that all of the Nebraska State Accountability (NeSA) data is in, and Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) decisions have been reported, I would like to take some time to explain the assessment outcomes for the students at Chadron Middle School.

Last year was the first time that districts were not organized by building, instead the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) organized districts by grade levels: 3-5, 6-8 and 11.  Therefore, 5^th grade assessment results are not included in the middle school’s data that is presented below.  NDE has set scale score ranges of 85-134 as meeting standard and 135-200 as exceeding standard for math, science, and reading.  In the area of writing, a scale score of 40-54 is considered proficient and a score of 55-70 exceeds standards.  All Chadron Middle School students took the reading and math test, 5^th and 8^th grade students took the science test, and only 8^th grade students took the writing test.

Federal Accountability - Annual Yearly Progress (AYP):

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a component of the federal law, No Child Left Behind, which requires all schools and districts to annually measure the progress of students toward goals established by the State. Student performance is measured in Reading and Mathematics.  Other academic indicators such as graduation rate for high schools, and the participation rate for assessments are all included in the determination of whether a school or a district has made adequate yearly progress

AYP State Goals for 2011-2012

	NeSA Reading	NeSA Math
Elementary Middle School High School	78% 80% 79%	67% 67% 61%

Chadron Middle School students exceeded the standard in math with 83% of our students meeting or exceeding standards.  Chadron Middle School did not meet AYP in reading this year with 74.46% of our students meeting or exceeding standards.

State Accountability – Nebraska Public Accountability System (NePAS)

The Nebraska Department of Education has rolled out a new ranking system called Nebraska Public Accountability System (NePAS), which ranks all of the school districts and schools in Nebraska in order from 1 to 249.  Included in the NePAS report are data on school scale score averages compared to the State in the areas of math, reading, science, and writing. The report also shows student cohort growth data (students in the same group from grade level to grade level) and student improvement data (comparing grade level students in different years) compared to the previous school year.  Below is a breakdown of the NePAS report for Chadron Middle School. 

• In the area of science, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 108.02 and we were ranked 65^th in the State. There is no growth or improvement data for science because it was the first year that schools were required to take the NeSA Science test.
• In the area of writing, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 42.2 and we were ranked 157^th in the State.  There is no growth or improvement data because of the new holistic scoring rubric that was introduced last year.
• In the area of math, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 116.53 and we were ranked 45^th in the State.  Cohort growth (students in the same group from grade level to grade level) since 2011 was -4.02 and improvement (comparing grade level students in different years) from 2011 was -2.32.
•  In the area of reading, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 112.64 and we were ranked 116^th in the State.  Cohort growth (students in the same group from grade level to grade level) since 2011 was 0.58 and improvement (comparing grade level students in different years) from 2011 was -2.74.   

Although our average scale score in reading was well above the minimum scale score of 85 for proficiency, we did not meet AYP because 25.54% of our students did not meet that standard.  Most of our students are meeting or exceeding standard and the average scale score shows that.  However, Chadron Middle School needs to continue to work to close the achievement gap for our students who are most at risk and mobility to and from Chadron continues to impact students who have not had the benefit of strong curriculum and instruction at our schools.

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We are using NeSA and NWEA data to target students for specific reading interventions.  In addition, we have designated the first 10-minutes of every mini course in grades 5-8 for Silent Sustained Reading (SSR).  We are also looking at the schedule to create reading intervention time during the school day, but changes to the master schedule will not take effect until the 2013-14 school year.

There will be a parent meeting on November 29^th at 5:30 PM in the CMS computer lab to answer questions about this data and I hope that parents will be able to attend.  Thank you for your support as we work together to meet these challenges and guide our students towards academic success.

Sincerely,

Nick Dressel

Chadron Middle School Principal

432-0708

nichlas.dressel@chadronschools.net