Isabel Lawrence
News Editor
For two weeks in March, sophomores undergo CAPT testing, a statewide exam that is a graduation requirement. However, CAPTs are not the only grade specific test taken at NCHS. On Feb. 12, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test will be adminsitered, to be taken by a group of randomly selected seniors.
Though not widely known, the NAEP test has existed in the past at the high school.
According to Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi, students are not as aware of the test because not all students take it. “I think we’ve done [NAEP testing] before. It’s not something we do every year. The Department of Education asks random schools to participate in it across the country, and we were asked,” he said. “It’s just a sample group, we give [the Board of Education]the list of our students and then they pick the sample, and they randomly select the students.”
Approximately 50 to 60 randomly selected students will be pulled out of school on Feb. 12 to take the exam in the Wagner room, which will be testing reading and mathematics this year. However, if students have not heard of NAEP testing before, it most probably means they have not been selected by the Board of Education. “If students are participating, they should’ve already received a letter about it. If they haven’t received a letter that means they’re probably off the hook,” said Dr. Luizzi.
Though perhaps largely unknown to the student body, NAEP testing plays a crucial role in collecting information about national educational standards. “It is something that’s important because it is really the only assessment, one of the only assessments, that’s a national assessment where we can see how different states are doing, where we can see how the country’s doing,” Dr. Luizzi said. “It’s something that’s been consistently given for a long period of time, so the scores are reliable and valid as far as progress goes.”
Even though the test is important on a national level, students will be largely unaffected by their results. “We don’t get our individual scores back as a school, and the students don’t get their individual scores back,” said Dr. Luizzi. “The state will have an aggregate score and that’ll be compared against the country in different ways. But we don’t actually know how well we perform on it because the purpose isn’t about assessing individual students, it’s about getting a big picture view.”
Though students may stress about the additional test, Dr. Luizzi is confident that NCHS students will produce satisfactory results. “I imagine they’ll select us more often than a lot of places because we can accommodate [the test]and make it work, and [the Board of Education]thinks our scores will be good,” he said. “Generally they find that schools in New England do particularly well, and we intend to uphold that tradition.”
