CARSON CITY, Nev. – A routine review process by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium identified a question where student performance didn’t appear in line with expectation. A deeper analysis by the Smarter Balanced staff resulted in the removal of the question from 8th grade math. The result is all students that answered the question saw their performance increase. Moreover there was no material change to any school ratings.

“The good news is that Smarter Balanced has the proper controls in place and was able to catch this,” said Steve Canavero, Ph.D., Superintendent of Public Instruction. “The review and decision to eliminate the question is not unlike the routine work of teachers in our classrooms when they review their tests and student performance. Sometimes a question on a test doesn’t work like we expect.”

After a thorough analysis by the Nevada Department of Education of all eighth grade mathematics assessments, the item was removed from the results file and a rescore of these grade 8 mathematics assessments was completed. The following is an overview of the rescore and the number of students who saw a change in their Performance Level (PL):

• 2 students answered correctly - no change in PL
• 231 students went from PL1 to PL2
• 245 went from PL2 to PL3
• 22 went from PL3 to PL4
• 4,037 affected students showed no change in PL

Students who saw an increase in their achievement level after the rescore will receive an updated Individual Student Score Report and districts will receive updated Roster Reports. The updated results file is also being run through the Nevada School Performance Frame work and an updated accountability report will be provided on December 17, 2018. Please visit NevadaReportCard.com for updated school reports.

Please contact Peter Zutz at the Nevada Department of Education with any questions you may have pzutz@doe.nv.gov.