The Seward School Board looked at possible options for mental health support for the school and discussed the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System results.
The board decided that it would start looking at possible options for mental health support for both students and teachers at the school.
“We are looking into all possible options right now to determine what works best for our school,” Dr. Josh Fields, district superintendent, said. “We are looking into working with Memorial Health Care and teaming up with Milford and Centennial public schools on this, as well. Nothing has been decided yet on what we will do and what it will look like.”
The board then discussed the results from the NSCAS assessments. The NSCAS assessments includes two different tests, which includes the NSCAS Growth for grades 3-8 and the NSCAS ACT, which is typically given to juniors.
The results from the NSCAS Growth assessments showed that reading/language arts were the area of biggest impact over the last couple of years. Results also showed that math continues to be very strong in the district.
Results from the NSCAS ACT assessment showed that Seward scores are strong compared to the state and area districts.
Overall, Director of Curriculum and Staff Development Dr. Matt Dominy thinks that the assessments went well.
"Our students did very well considering all of the circumstances surrounding the 2020-2021 school year,” Dominy said. “This test is a one-time test given in April, and although there is information to gain from it, we have more consistent assessments that are given at the classroom and district level that are used to inform our instruction and measure student growth."
Although the assessments are good for the school, Dominy believes they cannot be compared to previous years.
“The number of questions, the format of the assessment and the issues of lost instruction due to quarantines have impacted our ability to compare assessment results year over year," Dominy said.
Overall, Dominy is happy with how the assessments went.
"We are proud of our students and teachers and how they have persevered over the past couple of school years and have continued to grow and learn in difficult circumstances,” Dominy said.
