Standardized Testing

Hello Nederland Elementary Community,

This week, families of 3rd through 8th grade students will be receiving a letter and survey from BVSD on the mandated state testing that will take place in April. The letter describes your parental rights to opt out of state testing.

Last year, I did not discourage families from exercising your right to "opt out" because of the format of the assessment and the extensive amount of time it required. With last year’s format, it was challenging to identify the positive impacts of the testing. This year, our legislature listened to parents and made significant changes in the testing format and the length of the test.

There is only one testing window this year, which will occur in April. Last year's test required two windows in March and April/May. The total time required for students has been reduced from over 15 hours to approximately 8 hours over a three week period. Third, fourth and fifth graders will take four sessions of math assessments and three sessions of English language arts. Fifth graders will take an additional science assessment over the course of three, 80-minute sessions. Our school has not been identified to take the social studies state assessment. However, our fourth graders will be piloting one additional English language arts assessment. All testing will be completed online, in your child's regular classroom using Chromebooks or in our library computer lab.

Standardized tests allow parents and educators to gain a wide perspective of a student’s achievement and progress compared to thousands of students the same age and grade level across the state and nation. We do not make any decisions based solely on individual results, but the overall school trends help us make very important decisions about curriculum and instruction. I strongly encourage your child to take this assessment so we can use the results to help guide our instruction and to make Nederland Elementary even better. Please contact me if you have any questions about testing or any other topic.

I am thankful for your support at Nederland and appreciate having you as a partner in education.

Regards,
Jeff