By KEN STEPHENS

Special to The Hays Daily News

HUTCHINSON -- This week begins an important period for Hutchinson elementary and middle school students. Perhaps more important for their teachers and school administrators than the students themselves.

It's the start of the annual state assessment tests. Students in third through eighth grades will take reading assessment tests on three days during the next two weeks. Then after spring break, they'll return for three more days of math assessments.

So schools staged various activities this week to get their students psyched but not psyched out.

A pep rally featuring cheerleaders, football players and a drum line from Hutchinson High School capped the week Friday at Wiley Elementary School.

"If you put too much pressure on it, there's always a negative reaction," Wiley Principal Cindy Cooprider said of the assessment tests. "So we try to keep it upbeat and help them to know the importance of just doing their personal best. We realize students have different potentials, and we're happy if they just do their personal best."

Since the No Child Left Behind federal education law was enacted in 2002, schools have been challenged to have a growing percentage of their students score proficient on assessment tests each year. That Adequate Yearly Progress, as it is called, is supposed to lead to having every student proficient by 2014.

"The assessments don't tell the whole story," Cooprider said. "It's a compilation of all the work the students do. Unfortunately, we're held to a high standard with AYP."

Wiley didn't make AYP a couple of years ago. But last year it did. The school also earned Standards of Excellence Awards in reading for the third and sixth grades and the school as a whole.

Cooprider said Wiley got back on track by implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Support, which engaged parents, teachers, counselors and others in individual plans for students who needed help.

On Friday, cheerleaders urged the students on with a chant of "Fire up, Raccoons, fire up!" The drum line got loud, and football stars Tyler Fee, Deveon Dinwiddie and Josh Smith ran around the gymnasium giving high-fives to students.

"We just wanted to come out and talk to you today about how important it is to do well on your tests and do well in school," Fee said. "Because if you want to do activities like us and the cheerleaders and the band, then you have to have good grades."