School Board Approves Additional Testing for JPS Students
2015/04/30 – Sixth through 12th graders in Jackson Public Schools will take another test this year after the school board approved hiring Renaissance Learning to implement online tests called universal screeners for these students.
JPS is the only school district the state education department is aware of that will screen secondary level students.
The screener, most often done in kindergarten through third grade, is an online test that provides individualized information on the reading and math capability of each student. Teachers use the information to help guide individualized instruction for students who need it.
Superintendent Cedrick Gray, who has recently expressed his concerns about the amount of testing students are subjected to, brought up the screeners to the school board at its last meeting.
“I know that sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, but we must prepare for the next year,” Gray said to the board of an additional test or series of tests.
Gray said he hopes this test will “help minimize further testing in the future.”
The board approved hiring Renaissance Learning, the same company providing the statewide assessment to determine whether third graders will move on to fourth grade as part of the state’s new literacy law.
The district will pay Renaissance Learning around $42,000 to screen students in grades 6 through 12 at the end of this year.
“The universal screener will provide middle and high schools the opportunity to schedule students in classes needed for them to be academically successful for the upcoming year,” district spokesperson Sherwin Johnson said in an e-mailed statement. “This screener will provide diagnostic student information needed in order to develop and provide interventions, remediation and enrichment for students.”
Mississippi schools spend up to one of every four days of the year giving their students standardized tests, according to the Mississippi Association of State Superintendents.
Johnson said the data gathered from the screeners implemented this year can be used by teachers next academic year.
Renaissance Learning is an educational software company headquartered in Wisconsin.
Source: The Clarion-Ledger
