The Wauneta-Palisade School District has received the results of the latest statewide standardized NSCAS tests, but because of the time it takes to get those scores, they’re of limited use to the district, its superintendent said.
    “It’s hard to do anything with it when you take the test in March and you get the results six months later,” Superintendent Randy Geier said.
    The results put the district in the “good” category, behind “excellent” and “great” but ahead of “needs improvement.”
    In separate subject areas, the results put Wauneta-Palisade at 32 percent in English language arts, behind the 50-percent peer average and the 52-percent statewide average.
    In math, Wauneta-Palisade was at 31 percent, behind both peers — 54 percent — and the state average of 52 percent.
    The biggest lag was in science, where Wauneta-Palisade scored 35 percent, against 70 percent for peers and 66 percent statewide.
    “It’s one test,” Geier said. “They take it in one day. Some kids are just poor test-takers. It’s hard to use any of that data.
    “I don’t think they’re an accurate reflection of what [students] know.” Nor do they measure how hard students work or how good their attitudes about school and learning are, he said.
    Geier noted that a student who takes the test as a sixth-grader, for example, doesn’t get the results until the second semester of seventh grade, when they’ve moved on in the subjects.

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