Hampton classified ‘Excellent’ by AQuESTT

Hampton Schools saw a significant improvement over last year in the statewide school assessments and accountability ratings released last Wednesday by the Nebraska Department of Education. 
Supt. Holly Herzberg reported that Hampton received an overall  classification of “Excellent” in the department’s Accountability for a Quality Education System Today and Tomorrow (AQuESTT) evaluation system which was an improvement over last year’s figures and puts the district in the highest of the four classification categories. The AQuESTT rubric rates schools as “Needs support to improve” (1), “Good” (2), “Great” (3) or “Excellent” (4) based on objective standards such as scores on achievement tests. At the state level the assessment tool measures such things as progress toward English language proficiency, graduation rates and chronic absenteeism. 
In addition, Herzberg says the elementary and middle school (Grades 7-8) each received Excellent ratings and the high school was classified as Good. Last year the middle and high schools each received a Good classification while only the elementary was classified as Excellent. 
“I was proud of the way that Hampton performed in terms of the classifications,” Herzberg commented. “It’s a reflection of the hard work that all of our staff does to make sure that our students are prepared the best they can be to take the statewide assessments. So much of the classification is really based on our student performance of NSCAS, which is our state assessment tool we give in grades 3-8 and then the ACT is given at the 11th grade in high school.”
Herzberg noted her frustration with the means used by AQuESTT to evaluate the progress of the high school. 
“I’m going to tell you that really in the high school the main thing that drives that is student performance on the ACT, which is difficult for me because the ACT is not aligned to the Nebraska State Standards,” Herzberg said. “I mean, it’s a college entrance exam, right? So if you’re looking at the ACT as being an indicator and if you’re teaching the Nebraska state standards to your 11th graders, those two don’t really align and so that’s tough.”
Herzberg said the reason for using the ACT as the state assessment is that it gives every high school junior the opportunity to take the college entrance exam free of charge because the state pays for it. 
“So it’s kind of leveling that playing field, if you will, in terms of students having access to that test,” Herzberg said. “I do believe — and this would be a great question for some guidance counselors to answer — but I feel like there is less and less emphasis on a student’s ACT score in terms of college entrance. We’re starting to see that decline. But I think it was an easy way for the state to provide that for our students, which I think is good. I think that’s a positive of everyone taking it, but realistically it’s probably not a great assessment of how our students really understand the Nebraska state standards.”
For students in Grades 3-8 the classification is based in part on the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS), a student achievement test administered three times a year to measure progress in areas such as English Language Arts (ELA), math and science. 
Herzberg said results will vary from district to district, in part because each school is different. For instance, middle school at Hampton is Grades 7 and 8, while other districts include Grade 6 in middle school. 
Herzberg said another factor in determining the classifications is chronic absenteeism, which is an area Hampton has been working to improve. 
“What they’re saying is they want to see our chronic absenteeism rate — and the baseline that they use to calculate that rate was the 21-22 school year — so what the state is asking us to do is in 10 years they want to see that rate cut in half. So every year they would like us to do a 5 percent reduction of that number and if you do, then you can get a plus one if you’re reducing chronic absenteeism... So in our middle school, we did see that we really cut that chronic absenteeism number and that was a bump for our students. So attendance and getting kids here and in seats is a focus of our school. We know that research will tell us that’s the best place for kids to be, and while we know there are school activities and sometimes sickness that will require students to be absent, we really want to emphasize the fact that we need kids here at school.”
Herzberg said the classification system stems from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed by congress and signed into law in 2015. She notes the rating system is quite complicated and has “a lot of moving parts to it” which makes it difficult to explain. That’s why she took time to develop a Powerpoint presentation and presented the information to school staff and the school board prior to the Thanksgiving break and the statewide release of the classifications.