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Trisha Benton Randolph Times
RANDOLPH – Faculty, staff, administrators, students and parents may describe Randolph Public Schools as “good” or even “great” or “excellent.”
Now the school is officially classified with all of those adjectives by the Nebraska Department of Education.
For the third year in a row, Randolph Public Schools 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 English Language Arts and Mathematics tests are given in grades three through eight. NSCAS science tests are given in fifth and eighth grades and juniors take the ACT.
Randolph High School received an ‘Excellent’ ranking, for the second year in a row. The overall Randolph Public Schools district and Randolph’s middle school received a ‘Great’ classification and the elementary school received a ‘Good’ ranking.
High School Principal Brandi Bartels said Randolph’s high school achievement scores haven’t always been excellent and she credits the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports for a steady improvement over time.
“I wasn’t necessarily surprised (by the AQuESTT results) but it’s encouraging,” she said.
The high school ranking is based on ACT scores which are taken by juniors. Last year’s data used for the ranking indicated students were more than 89 percent proficient with 12 out of 14 students proficient in ELA and 13 out of 14 students proficient in Math.
For middle school grades, students were more than 71 percent proficient and at the elementary, more than 57 percent were proficient. The elementary school was less than 3 percent away from achieving a higher classification.
“I really feel like we had some older grades last year that really didn’t put a lot of effort into testing in the spring,” said Elementary Principal Denton Beacom.
“We had a lot of kids who scored where they shouldn’t have scored.”
Students in grades 3-6 are tasked with completing double the amount of assessments as other elementary students so some assessment fatigue may have been an issue, Beacom said.
With staff input, some incentives have been developed for those students who show growth on assessments, Beacom said.
While scores on the NSCAS test, used in the AQuESTT rankings, wasn’t as high as he would’ve liked, Beacom said he’s been pleased with scores on other standardized tests.
Using both the NSCAS and ACT scores, the overall district was rated as “Great” with more than 65 percent proficiency.
Bartels said schools can gain or lose points based on attendance, participation on the assessments, graduation rate and a few other factors.
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.
AQuESTT annually classifies schools and districts as Excellent, Great, Good, and Needs Support to Improve.
A state breakdown of classifications indicated that 323 (29 percent) of schools were classified as Excellent, 359 (33 percent) were Great, 330 (30 percent) were Good, and 89 (8 percent) were designated as Needs Support to Improve.
Literacy is a key priority for the state. The Nebraska State Board of Education has a goal to increase third grade proficiency in English Language Arts to 75 percent by 2030.
According to the AQuESTT data statewide, grades 4-8 all saw increases in ELA proficiency from last year. However, proficiency in third grade dropped from 62 percent to 59 percent. Students representing different demographics all saw growth compared with last year’s scores, however, achievement gaps continue to persist.
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.
Teacher salaries
At its meeting Monday night, the Randolph School Board approved a new salary schedule for its teachers with a base pay starting at $40,400, an increase of $1,070 starting with the 2025-26 academic year.
The new schedule rewards those who stay with the district with an increase annually.
Those teachers who continue their own education will be provided with salary increases as well, said Superintendent Daryl Schrunk.
There’s a separate schedule and base for those with extra duties such as sponsoring an activity or coaching, also with incentives for longevity.
Overall, the negotiation process went well, said Board President Paul Schmit.
“We want to keep in line with our neighbors. We’ve been behind before and it’s always hard to catch up so we want to stay in line,” he said.
Teacher suggestions made sense and adjustments were incorporated into the final schedule, said Jim Scott, board vice president.
Heat exchanger
The school board also approved materials necessary to replace a heat exchanger at the high school.
Parts needed - including 178 new plates and gaskets - for the work total more than $25,000. The work by Johnson Controls would take about two days which would be an additional cost.
