Test Scores in Nebraska: Bad to Worse

The Omaha Public Schools have had more than a few black eyes lately as test scores were collected from the schools by The Omaha World-Herald.

•          The OPS newly hired superintendent Nancy Sebring had to quit before she started this summer because of salacious emails she had been caught sending on her work computer

•          The OPS board president Freddie Gray and board attorney Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda are under fire for keeping certain facts about  that situation secret from other board members and the public

•          The latest ACT scores are out and students in OPS schools did the worst in the Omaha metro area by far. What’s of even more concern is that each of the seven high schools in Nebraska’s largest school district posted a lower ACT score average than two years ago.

Of the seven high schools in OPS, only two, Burke and Central, had ACT score averages barely high enough to gain admission for the top half of their senior classes in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The bottom half of those senior classes wouldn’t make the cut. UNL requires an ACT score of 20 out of 36, which is quite low compared to other public universities; a CHAIR LEG can score a 20.

Bottom line: most OPS graduates couldn’t make the grade in the easy-to-get-into university that the state’s taxpayers provide for them despite $10,000 per year per student spending levels in OPS.

What is the impact on students? It certainly does not bode well for future career options and earning prospects. Return on investment for taxpayers? Makes one shudder.