Scores from an international exam taken by a total of approximately 540,000 high school students during the 2015-16 school year were released Dec. 6. Those scores revealed that Blue Valley students exceeded not only the United States’ national average but also nearly every educational system in the world with regard to testing in math and science.

BVNW Principal Amy Murphy said a group of randomly selected students completed a global assessment created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She said that particular assessment is compatible with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a test given to students to survey education around the world. Murphy said the OECD exam allows the Blue Valley School District to see where its students are ranked, internationally, in addition to helping schools continue to create and prepare global citizens.  

“Can you compete not only with other students your age in the United States, but where are you internationally?” Murphy said. “With the way things are, now, you need to be internationally prepared…to compete against people in the U.S. because of technology…and in the way companies are set up. In a group, you may be working on a project and you may be the only one on the team that’s in the United States. Someone may be in China or India or Europe, so how do you compare if you’re not competing internationally?”

Murphy also said that in order to take the test, a list of every 15 and 16-year-old student in the district is sent to the OECD, which randomly selects 85 students from each school to take the assessment. After completing the test, no individual testing results are released, but the collective results of the district are compared with other school districts, globally.

“I saw some comments on the [social media] feed after the story broke that said, ‘Oh, Blue Valley hand-picked their kids, and that’s why they’re doing so well.’ However, if you read the methodology, we don’t get to handpick,” Murphy said.

Murphy said BVNW has done well in helping prepare students for testing situations due to its focus on critical thinking and use of information rather than the memorization of facts and figures.

BVNW Mathematics Department Head Jamie Finical said the exemplary test scores students received reinforces the new level of learning apparent within the hard-working demographic of students and faculty members who continuously try to improve and bring novel aspects to BVNW classrooms.

“I can’t tell you that we do anything specifically to prepare any kids for any particular test, but what we do instead is try and really develop mathematical thinkers and try to get kids to be good problem solvers,” Finical said.

Junior Livia Lambrecht said she took the OECD exam test last school year and found it to be challenging, due to it’s inclusion of higher level math and science questions than she had previously encountered. However, Lambrecht said even without specific preparation, she was able to recognize uses for equation or formulas used in math classes or background knowledge gained in science classes to help her answer difficult questions.

Lambrecht said BVNW prepares its students well for any type of testing, due to the in-depth learning that occurs in everyday classrooms.

“I think [teachers] teach more in depth with equations or how to solve math problems and more in depth just on every topic, Lambrecht said. “You know more information about it, and even if you don’t know how to solve it, you can at least know the basics to be able to maybe solve it.”

Like Lambrecht, junior Andrew Grant also took the test last school year. However, Grant said he went into the test feeling confident and well-prepared. He said while taking the test, he noticed that many of the concepts on which he was tested were all concepts he had previously encountered in his regular classes.

“[I felt prepared from] not only coming to school, but just asking good questions about how to do stuff and learn from experience,” Grant said. “[Doing well on the test] could’ve also been the timing of the test, because I was learning similar topics to what was on the test.”

Murphy said that she sees the district’s scores increasing each year in part because each year they are receiving well developed students from the elementary and middle schools.

“We always talk about the successes [students] have in high school,” Murphy said. “But what we really have to do is turn around and look about it in elementary, middle, so [students] were well-prepared when [they] walk in that door [to BVNW].”

Murphy said the OECD exam differs from other state or national tests like the Kansas State Assessment or the ACT-tests that are often multiple choice. She said instead, the test required students to be able to explain their thought processes and show work, which parallels the educational direction the district aims to take.

“[Educators] have long conversations about how no longer should education be about the acquisition of knowledge, like, ‘Learn a whole bunch of stuff now, because I might need to know later,’” Murphy said. “Rather, now, the focus needs to be on the application of knowledge and, ‘Can I go get information when I need it, and can I turn around and use that knowledge in some kind of application?’ I think this test kind of does that, really makes you apply and use what you know rather than just can you recall information that you’ve learned.”

Murphy said her goal for BVNW students is to see another increase in performance the next time the test is administered and results are released in order to propel the district to higher world ranking.

“What we need to do is to continue to get better and to continue to focus on what we need to do to prepare global citizens who can compete at an international level,” Murphy said. “If that’s our focus, then tests like this are just going to be able to show that that’s exactly what we’re doing.”