Payton Burg

Senior Alix Nath prepares to take a NWEA test. Seniors were usually exempt from most state tests, but for the new NWEA assessment procedure, seniors had to test along with other students.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, AHS students began taking the NWEA tests, and it wouldn’t be the last one either. NWEA stands for the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit organization that states its purpose “to foster student growth through evidence-based assessment and learning solutions that respond to the needs of all learners.” According to the NWEA website, the organization has worked to help 6.2 million students across more than 50,000 schools. NWEA does this because “every kid deserves it.” 

The NWEA tests are not unfamiliar within Atlantic Schools. Middle school students participate in NWEA testing twice a year, so this year’s freshmen understood the process. Freshman Tidus Bateman thinks he did “pretty good. Better than my last year’s by a lot.” The week prior to the test, students were informed of the importance of trying on the test. Bateman said, “I think about 75% of the school also tried on the test.”

AHS principal Heather McKay expressed the significance of students doing their best on the NWEA tests. “Once we dig into the reports and we know where the deficits are, we’ll be able to create groups based on where people need help,” McKay said. AHS is doing additional testing with the NWEAs because “we are on the Every Student Succeeds list, which is not a good list to be on,” said McKay, referring to a “targeted” status given to schools in need of improvement. “On the ISASPs, we don’t get where the deficits are, so it’s really frustrating. We don’t know what we’re supposed to work on,” she said. ISASP stands for the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress and is taken separately from the NWEA tests, which provide additional insight into the educational struggles each student is facing. “It’s going to help us make a lot of educational decisions,” McKay said.

The NWEA tests screen students “with an accurate, efficient, and effective universal screener for RTI [Response to Intervention], MTSS [Multi-Tiered Systems of Support], and other models,” according to the NWEA website. These tests are designed to assist educators and help them work on the stuff students struggle the most with. AHS took the Reading, Math, and Science tests, and those who scored below average are scheduled for additional help through the school’s built-in Academic Opportunity (AO) times.

Although students such as sophomore Peyton McLaren find the NWEA tests “boring,” some students can see the importance of taking them. “I do, but a lot of people don’t,” McLaren said. She thinks that students are averse to the tests because “I would say a lot are not trying compared to those who are. I just don’t think people try because they are bored of it.”

Although some AHS students do not do their best on the tests out of boredom, others simply do not like it. Freshman Chloe Updike said, “I know a lot of people who just want to fly by it.” The tests display scores to students at the end, allowing them to see where their own deficits are. Updike thinks she did “pretty good, the score said so too,” even though “I personally don’t like [the test],” she said.