State Board of Education discussed updated computer standards, statewide assessment process

The State Board of Education discussed an updated draft of computer science and technology standards at its meeting Friday.

It updated standards already in place to reflect the current law. The standards include required learning about computer literacy, cybersecurity and information technology.

Board member Sherry Jones said she was initially concerned about the potential that these standards would increase screen time.

“Many of these standards can be met without the use of a device, which was encouraging to me,” Jones said.

The board will vote on the standards at their next meeting in February.

Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Brian Maher announced the department would start the process to introduce a new statewide assessment system for the 2025-26 school year. The first step will be finding a vendor to help with the new system.

The questions that teachers created for the current assessment would stay the same, but the vendor could change. This could impact how students are entered into the system, how students know which test to access and the quality of the reports with the results.

Maher said another part of the process is figuring out what long-term assessment model works best for Nebraska schools.

“Is it a through-year model? Is it a one-point-in-time assessment, summative only,” Maher said. “Or is it some combination of those two things?”

For the 2024-25 school year, Maher recommended keeping the current system but taking out the department paying for the interim MAP tests.

Scott Phillips, the 2024 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, spoke for the first time in front of the board. He discussed how he wants to inspire other people to join the profession, especially with the increasing teacher shortage.

Phillips also wants to help current teachers find work-life balance. He said he thought about leaving the profession about five years ago because he struggled with finding that stability.

“Burnout is a possibility,” Phillips said. “I think if you don’t have that balance, that’s something that you got to be aware of.”

Now, Phillips is in his 14th year teaching seventh-grade math at Aurora Middle School.

The board also recognized two teachers who received the Milken Educator Award in November: Jacob Eitzen, a math teacher at Bellevue West High School, and Leslie McIntosh, a fifth-grade teacher at Syracuse-Dunbar-Avoca Middle School.

McIntosh, a fifth-grade teacher at Syracuse-Dunbar-Avoca Middle School, said there’s many ways to become a teacher, even if it isn’t choosing education as a pathway right after high school.

“I think the best form of getting, encouraging good people to go into teaching is by word of mouth,” she said. “And the people who are in teaching now need to speak highly of the profession.”

Next school year, McIntosh will start as the middle school principal.

Eitzen, a math teacher at Bellevue West High School, said the biggest challenge he sees is student attendance.

“I think it’s built on relationships with those students and the more I’m able to create a connection with those students, the more they're likely to show up for me,” Eitzen said. “But if they don’t show up, I can’t create the connection.”

At its business meeting on Thursday, the board voted district seven representative Elizabeth Tegtmeier as board president and district eight representative Deborah Neary as vice president for the year.

“While our board is considered nonpartisan, we are all aware of our political affiliations,” Tegtmeier said. “I believe that yesterday was a demonstration of true bipartisanship.”

The board will have their next meeting on Feb. 2 at the Nebraska Department of Education.