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HARTINGTON – Faculty, staff, administrators, students and parents may describe Hartington-Newcastle Public Schools as “Good,” “Great” or even “Excellent.”
Now the school is officially classified as such by the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE).
The school district received high marks from Nebraska’s accountability system classification, called AQuESTT (Accountability for a Quality Education System Today). The system classifies schools based on state test scores, particularly the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS). NSCAS ELA and Mathematics are given in grades three through eight. NSCAS science assessments are given in fifth and eighth grades and Nebraska juniors take the ACT assessment.
Hartington-Newcastle Elementary was one of only 27 percent of schools in the state to receive an “Excellent” ranking, while the district’s middle school received a “Great” classification and its high school a “Good” ranking.
“I am pleased about our ratings,” said Supt. A.J. Johnson. “What I am very proud of is that our teachers work hard for every individual student and we have great systems in place led by our principals and led by our teachers which are designed to make sure we are meeting the needs of all our students and that they are all growing.”
Although the rankings are positive, Johnson said, administrators and teachers will continue to focus on individual student growth, class growth, and using the data from the test themselves to influence curriculum and teaching.
This year, the NDE had the opportunity to set new cut scores, the scores that determine levels of proficiency. This happens anytime there is a new assessment or a significant change in an existing assessment. The English Language Arts assessment was new for 2022.
State and federal law require the NDE to annually classify and designate schools to provide signals for specific supports. Nebraska’s system – AQuESTT – helps ensure all students across all backgrounds and circumstances have access to opportunities and access. AQuESTT annually classifies schools and districts as “Excellent,” “Great,” “Good” and “Needs Support to Improve.”
A breakdown of classifications indicated that 303 (27 percent) of schools were classified as “Excellent,” 437 (40 percent) were “Great,” 288 (26 percent) were “Good” and 76 (7 percent) were designated as “Needs Support to Improve.”
There are definitely fluctuations in ratings from year to year which makes it difficult for Johnson to “put much stock” in an individual year’s data.
“We have small classes, and some years that won’t work out as well in our favor,” Johnson said. “We can’t get too high or too low when they change. These are artificial measures that would more accurately rate schools with large student populations. What is important is individual student growth and individual class growth from year to year as well as making sure our systems are set up to help all students grow.”
AQuESTT recognizes and rewards school initiatives that support student learning, the school environment and educators including those that supported student success through positive school partnerships and relationships; helped students successfully transition between grades, schools and programs; provided student access to comprehensive instructional opportunities; helped students prepare for college and careers; used multiple assessments to measure student learning; and supported education effectiveness.
AQuESTT encourages schools to build a system for continuous school improvement that supports students, educations and the school learning environment.
More information on assessment and accountability results can be found on the Nebraska Education Profile, nep.education. ne.gov.
