Mineola School Board Updates Status of NWEA Exams

According to Mineola School District figures, approximately 90 percent of students have finished all three of the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) exams on computer with the rest completed during the week of October 10.

“From a district-wide perspective we have freed up teachers’ time to be in professional learning communities to discuss NWEA,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said, referring to the .

The district has placed a , which are changing on a yearly basis and yielding what the district says is , especially in its middle school grades.

According to Dr. Nagler the state assessment is moving toward the PARK assessment, which is a consortium of 25 states. The ultimate goal is to have every student in the state take an exam on a computer at the same time by the 2014-15 school year.

The state is also moving toward a and data driven instruction as part of the Race to the Top initiative, but the challenge exists in testing the new material and assessing students as it is being rolled out.

“I don’t know how you create assessment at the same time you roll out new content,” Dr. Nagler said. “Listening to the (state education) commissioner... is incredibly frustrating because the Board of Regents is directing him to move forward with this initiative... but there are so many unanswered questions about how to do it which just leads to this anxiety on all levels about how you do it.”

The superintendent said that the NWEA exams should yield results closer to the state results and provide the consistency needed in order to accurately chart student growth. The superintendent noted that in the last year the AIMSWEB exam yielded results saying students were on track for growth and .

The next school assessment will be on common core curriculum, which Mineola began this school year and which will be evaluated throughout the course of the year. More information can be found on the curriculum changes can be found on the website www.engageny.org.