Kimball Public Schools focusing on revamping testing methods

Kimball public schools have experienced low test scores in the past. School officials have seen the importance of getting those scores up higher, and over the most recent school year have been working hard to do so.

The tests that students take through the years are the Dibels test which helps determine where students are in their learning and is primarily taken in the elementary school. The Nebraska State Accountability (NeSA), is a test taken by both the elementary and the high school students. The reading and math portions of the NeSa testing are given to grades 3 through 8 and 11. The science test is administered to grades 5, 8, and 11. The writing part is given online to grades 8 and 11. Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), is a Measure of Academic Progress(MAP) exam, and it provides the schools with very useful information pertaining to where students are doing well and where they may be struggling.

While Kimball schools have not gotten any results for their most recent round of testing they have definitely made changes in the way they go about testing.

"One thing I've seen teachers doing is really striving to work on vocabulary and also setting goals for each student. That's something that I've seen teachers doing to step it up when it comes to testing," Mike Mitchell, Principal of Mary Lynch Elementary, said.

With the previous test scores not being where they needed to be, the schools had to come up with ways to motivate the students to try to do better. When the students try their best on tests, it gives a more accurate reading of where they are academically to the educators.

"These tests serve purposes. They aren't pointless. They hold us accountable for what we're teaching students. So they make sure we're doing our job. They also tell us where our students might be struggling," Kimball Public Schools Superintendent Marshall Lewis said.

Once the schools receive results, they can really see where it is that the students need more help. They can focus extra attention on the areas of need and work to give the students the best education possible. The students are learning, and the goals they are given are based on their abilities, this allows them to compete with themselves.

"When the kids are taking the reading tests then they get their scores back, it's really neat, because they get so excited when they've met or exceeded their goals. Especially the younger students, there's a lot of celebrating and fist pumping," Mitchell said.

At the junior/senior high school, Principal Eugene Hanks, has other incentives for students along with personal goals.

"I give out awards to the highest scoring students. So we try to recognize that achievement in the academics and motivate the kids to do well," Hanks said.

As much as the schools want the children to do well on the exams, they also need to have time in order to teach the children the material. Unfortunately, testing has proven to be a way that instruction time is often lost. Up to 11 days a year can be lost to testing alone. This is problematic for students who need that time to learn. The number one problem that the Kimball school principals saw was the loss of instruction time.

"We cut our testing down to two days. We wanted to see how the students worked with that. I think next year we'll give the eighth graders a day in-between testing to rest a little bit," Hanks said.

This school is hoping that the different things they are trying are indeed helping. Each decision made has the students' best interest in the forefront. The students, after all, are the ones the tests are tracking. It's a difficult thing to get people excited about testing. Not only the students, but the parents as well.

"Testing is something that a lot of families and parents don't really see as important. It's not like sports. You don't see immediate results. There's not a crowd cheering students on in the stands as they fill in answer bubbles. So we really try to stress the importance of the testing to the community," Lewis said.

Like with anything, students start to form their values at home. While the schools try to stress the importance of testing through flyers sent home and announcements made, they can only do so much. Encouraging students to get a good night's sleep, eat a decent breakfast and try their best is something that can start at home.

"We aren't trying to hide our test scores. We want the community to be aware of the school's situation and hopefully find ways to support our students," Lewis said.

One thing that has been brought to the attention of the teachers is that sometimes the students know the material very well, however, the wording used to ask the questions on the test can be confusing or hard to understand.

"When we talk about teaching the students vocabulary for the test, it isn't just the words that they will be tested on. It's the words they'll be tested with," Special Services Director Jamie Golding said.

Golding went on to explain that sometimes students know the material, but the way the questions are worded is confusing to them. This is when teachers step in and provide example test questions. Ones that are worded similarly to the ones on the test.

"The teachers will get practice test questions, or a lot of the time they make up their own for the students. This way the kids aren't thrown with the way the test asks things," Mitchell said.

While the teachers and school faculty are doing everything in their power to prepare students for these yearly tests, they cannot foresee everything. Some students will have bad days and that will affect their testing. Some students might be new and not test well, some might test very well. There might be a question where the wording throws a student. The best thing that the teacher can do is listen to their students and use the feedback to prepare them even better the next time around.

Parents can help by paying attention to when testing is going to happen and making sure their student is prepared by getting a good night's sleep. They can also help by expressing to their student how they feel testing is important. If a student feels that their parents care about the testing, then they may try harder.

"We tend to see a score drop from our tests at the end of the year compared to our tests at the beginning of the year. So trying to keep students academically active during the summer could be a benefit. We do have summer school during the month of June at the Elementary if parents want to send their students to that," Golding said.

Mary Lynch Elementary also has preschool. They offer a morning class and an afternoon class. Parents can enroll their student at anytime by calling Mary Lynch. Although, there are only five spots left in the preschool for this coming year.

The benefits of the preschool are that children can start learning at an earlier age and that allows them to become more academically ready for things like testing.

"These tests are not meant to be scary. They're tools meant to help assist us in getting to know what our kids need to know. We're working to get the scores up. It's not going to be something that changes overnight, but it is something that we are constantly working on improving," Lewis said.