NWEA

So the last 2 weeks have been a non-stop NWEA proctor-fest.  There was a time where I would have been nothing but relieved to have multiple days sitting and proctoring; but not now.  In our library there has not been an inventory done in a looooooooong time, which leaves the responsibility to me.  Don't get me wrong, I'm finding this fascinating as I've never done one of these all the way before.  But back to the thesis; NWEA is killing my ability to get the inventory finalized.  I've got 69.87% of my inventory done, but that last 30% is causing me headaches because I've already scanned EVERY book that is physically in the library.  So what that means is that I have a lot "treasure hunting" to do in these last 9 days of school.  And by the way, 9 days is not enough; because that 30% is roughly 5,000 items.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  However, having watched several of these NWEA tests in all 3 disciplines now, I must say that I think this test is something else.  The fact that it is able to essentially differentiate itself to each individual test-taker is quite impressive.  And I have to say that I have yet to be surprised by a score at all.  When I have recorded benchmark scores in the past I have noticed major discrepancies in both the month-to-month individual scores and some of the single scores I have seen that are completely not indicative of the students' ability.  NWEA is a program that, while I do not support the quantity of testing students today have, challenges appropriately and provides, what appears to be, solid data that truly values the students abilities in a given subject.  Additionally, there is the matter of the time limit, I have seen students get bad scores for moving too quickly, and I have very rarely seen a student that put in multiple hours on the test not be rewarded.  However, it does lead to the idea that we have students (approximately 20%) that are spending at least 2 hours on this test.  And we do this for 3 weeks.  That is quite a bit of a load on the brain stress-wise and normal workload-wise.