Assessment & Curriculum
Curriculum/Assessment Director
Curriculum
Mitchell Public Schools has a K-12 comprehensive curriculum that is aligned with the Nebraska State Standards. Each year, teachers document the teaching of these standards to ensure all students have the opportunity to learn all standards. (The Nebraska Standards can be found at the website listed to the left.) As the Nebraska Department of Education Rule 10 mandates, our curriculum must go above and beyond these state standards. To ensure a rigorous curriculum, throughout the year teachers at MPS review the curriculum and make additions and updates as needed. A master copy of this curriculum is housed in the Curriculum Director's office. Since our curriculum is a 'working document', all staff also maintain copies in their classrooms.Assessment
Each year districts in Nebraska are required to assess all students. Districts must administer the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math in grades 3-8. The NSCAS test for Science is also given in grades 5 and 8. Students in Grade 11 are given the ACT test as the accountability assessment that the State Board of Education voted to administer. The ACT assess the subjects of English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing.
Nebraska also requires all schools to administer a Norm-Referenced Assessment. At MPS we utilize the NWEA MAP (NorthWest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress) Tests. These assessments for Reading and Math are given in grades 1-11. Science is administered in grades 5-11.
MPS also progress monitors its students to ensure success. In grades K-6 all students are monitored in Reading fluency and comprehension with the DIBELS assessments. In grades 7 and 8, AIMSweb assessments are used to monitor Reading fluency and comprehension. In Math, the AIMSweb assessments are used to monitor progress, in computation, for all students in grades K-8.