September 2013 State Board Report

September's meeting of the State Board of Education featured a jam-packed agenda full of updates from across NDE's range of functions. Here are a few highlights for our members.

First, the Board received an update from the subcommittee tasked with the Commissioner search, and Board Vice President Mark Quandhal informed members to keep their calendars clear the week of December 9-13, as they anticipate having the candidate pool narrowed to four finalists at that time. The finalists will be interviewed by the entire Board, and this will therefore be an open meeting.

The Board received several updates related to Federal programs, including a presentation by Valorie Foy on NeSA data, one by John Moon on the ACT pilot program, one from Diane Stuehmer on Adequate Yearly Progress, and another from Brian Halstead on ESEA. Finally, Donlynn Rice and Deb Romanek presented the alignment study commissioned by NDE of Nebraska's State Mathematics Standards in comparison to the Common Core Mathematics Standards.

The full state report on NeSA will be released on September 27th, but Foy shared preliminary data indicating that scores are up across the board, with 2013 data showing 77% of students are proficient in Reading, 69% in Mathematics, 70% in Science, and 68% in Writing. In the report on ACT data, Moon emphasized that while scores went down from the previous year, this is easily explained by the far greater number of students tested. In 2013, 84% of graduates were tested, compared with just 54% nationally. The composite score for Nebraska is 21.5 (of a possible 36), compared with a 20.9 national composite average.

The alignment study comparing Nebraska and Common Core Mathematics standards raised many questions. Unlike the Language Arts Standards alignment study, which showed standards that were fairly similar in content and rigor, the Mathematics standards were shown to be quite different. In many cases, reviewer McREL found that Nebraska's standards were less rigorous -- and in some cases, Nebraska's standards did not address advanced topics at all. NDE staff explained that this may be due to Nebraska introducing concepts later and in more depth, but conceded that the study will likely lead to a greater degree of work when Nebraska's Math Standards come up for review next year.

A couple other topics for review this month included an update on the Educator Effectiveness Model Evaluation pilot, which the Board approved for a second pilot year in order to gather more data. The Board also approved a proposed hearing draft on Exempt Schools, with the change of note for administrators being a proposed move of the date for Homeschool Exemptions to be filed by July 1, rather than 15th, such that schools can know in time for the start of the school year whether a child in their attendance area will be homeschooled.

State Education Technology Director Brent Gaswick gave an update on a report on the use and implementation of technology and distance education in K-12, and we will look to provide more from that report as soon as it is released.