State won't count Sidney's 'excellent' NeSA scores

For the second year in a row Nebraska State Accountability or NeSA writing test scores for eighth and 11th graders will not count toward state rankings.

Although the scores weren’t counted in rankings last year, this year, the scores won’t even be released. The state says that due to computer glitches, the scores may not be representative of many of the students’ abilities.

“The tests are going to remain embargoed, they will not count this year,” said Sidney’s High School Principal Chris Arent at Monday’s school board meeting. “That’s very disappointing to us.”

Around 44,000 middle and high school students completed the writing test this year, according to a report in the Omaha World Herald.

While around 1,000 students were locked out of the program for around 40 minutes, about 500 lost work due to computer glitches, according to the Associated Press. These students only account for slightly more than 3 percent of the kids who took the test.

“We did very well on the test,” Arent said.

The test scores were released to the schools for internal use.

To prepare Sidney schools for NeSA testing, school tech workers continually install updates on the software on which the students take the test as soon as they are available. The students take a practice version of the test in October which is graded by the staff in November. In December the students take the pilot test.

“So our students have to log on to the computer every time they do this,” Arent said. “So we already know where the bugs are and where the glitches are going to be.”

Students take the official test in January.

“At the high school for us, we had no problems at all, unlike other school districts that had some problems with their test,” Arent said.

The students did very, very well in Arent’s opinion.

Although the state is withholding a payment of $177,000 from Data Recognition Corp, the company contracted to provide software and services for the test, it did sign another $5 million contract with the company for this year’s NeSA tests.

“DRC has said they’ll fix it and they’ll make it right this coming year,” Arent said. “That doesn’t help us at all when we’re sitting here with excellent test scores.”

Many at the school are unhappy about the tests not being counted.

“We feel like we didn’t have glitches because our tech guys did such a fantastic job,” said Sidney’s Curriculum and Assessment director Sheri Ehler . “And because we tested out the system, meaning students and teachers tested out the system well ahead of time.”

Arent, Sheri Ehler and Superintendent of Sidney schools Jay Ehler have all communicated their disappointment with the situation to the Department of Education.