Caledonia Elementary Principal Roger Hill saw his school lose something during the 2015-16 school year. Next week, his students have a chance to earn it back — a fact he hasn’t let them forget.
Since 2005, the school has earned an A rating from the Mississippi Department of Education, the highest accountability designation offered for public school districts and campuses. Last year, however, Caledonia Elementary, long the highest rated school in the Golden Triangle, slipped to a B.
“It broke my heart,” Hill said.
The window for public schools to begin Mississippi Assessment Program testing — scores from which factor most heavily in a school and district’s accountability rating — begins Tuesday. While Hill said he and his faculty have emphasized the importance of the exams all school year, they heightened the sense of urgency in the final weeks of preparation.
In fact, Hill said he had spent several minutes this week delivering intercom messages at the preschool-fifth grade campus, reminding students of testing and preparation strategies, as well as driving home the point to third graders that their reading test is considered “high stakes.” If they don’t pass it, he reminds them, they run the risk of repeating the third grade.
“The anxiety is terrible,” Hill told The Dispatch. “The stress is unbelievable, not just this time of year but all through the year. I’ve heard third grade teachers complain and even want to go to a different grade so they can get out from under (a high-stakes testing grade).”
Mississippi requires grades 3-8 to take end-of-year exams in English and math, with fifth and eighth grade also tested in science. Of those, third grade reading comprehension part of the English test is the only one considered “high stakes” for students, while the writing portion doesn’t factor into whether they advance to fourth grade. Even if a third grader fails on Tuesday, the state allows the student two more chances to take the exam before retaining the student.
No third graders in Lowndes County School District, which includes campuses in Caledonia, New Hope and West Lowndes, were retained after the 2015-16 testing.
Caledonia Elementary teacher Stephanie Herring admitted “crunch time” this week had been “intense.” This year’s reading comprehension test will be harder, she said, with students having to not only choose the correct answer but be able to also explain it.
However, she said her students, and all the Caledonia third graders, had prepared all year — learning the state standards in the classroom and completing a barrage of practice tests.
“They are kids, so there are good days and bad days,” she said. “They know what’s coming, though, so the task is just to keep them focused.”
On testing days — which for her students will be Tuesday and Wednesday for English and again in two weeks for math — she said the small things matter. For instance, she noted some of her students, of their own volition, typically don’t eat breakfast. That “won’t be an option” during testing, she said, as the school plans to run all the testers through the cafeteria line upon arrival.
The intense focus on doing well on exams is contagious, said Herring, who spent three years with the Columbus Municipal School District before taking her job two years ago in Caledonia.
“Coming from a school considered ‘low performing,’ it really motivates me to make sure the students are prepared and have what they need,” she said. “And the students, they also want to be part of an ‘A’ school, so that helps.”
‘Final Countdown’ at Caledonia High
Down the road at Caledonia High, there are still a few more weeks before testing begins for most students. But as it gets closer to time, counselor D’Anne Webster said the campus will start taking on characteristics of one big, academic pep rally.
High school students take high-stakes exams in either Algebra I, Biology I, English II or U.S. History at the end of each semester, meaning testing opens on that level in both the winter and spring, and students must ultimately pass all four exams to qualify for graduation.
Webster said teachers hold week-long boot camps with students before testing time — reviewing material, boosting morale and having a little fun in the process.
Whether it’s daily themes, costumes, actual pep rallies or competition between two teachers’ classes, Webster said faculty and students all buy into the ambiance.
“We have signs of encouragement in the hallway, some classes wear (test-themed) shirts,” Webster said. “We have a teacher who last semester played different songs in his class every day during his boot camp — songs like ‘Final Countdown’ and ‘Eye of the Tiger.’
“Anything we can find to build awareness and excitement, we do it,” she added. “It’s all about the students taking ownership.”
Ballard: ‘We’re very proud of what we’ve done’
All state public schools have endured three consecutive years of a different testing company providing accountability exams. With the exception of third grade English, this will be the first time in four years Mississippi has used the same testing company in consecutive years.
This should help boost Lowndes County’s test scores, Assistant Superintendent Robin Ballard said, as the district sits just 63 points away from an overall A rating.
Still, the district went through what Ballard called three “tumultuous years” of testing changes between 2014 and 2016 improving a C district to a B.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve done,” Ballard said. “We would love to be the ‘A’ district in this region.”
To get there, Ballard said faculty and administration have taken advantage of all the tools MDE provides, including testing resources and a blueprint on the MDE website that shows what skills will be worth the most points on the exams.
Further, each child in the district, starting in preschool, has daily individual access to a tech device — either an iPad Mini, and iPad with a keyboard or a Mac Book — that helps acclimate them to electronic testing. At the high-school level, Lowndes students attend classes in four, 100-minute blocks, rather than seven shorter periods, to allow for more rigorous teaching of state standards.
The one mark against LCSD’s record, Ballard said, is West Lowndes High School, which fell from a C to an F rating in 2015-16. That placed the school as “at risk” and under state sanctions that require the district to regularly report on the school’s progress to MDE.
Ballard said she is confident the school will return to its previous form on this year’s testing.
“We feel like the problem was some personnel issues that we have corrected,” she said, noting that several teachers and both the principal and assistant principal at WLHS resigned and were replaced before the beginning of this school year.
Columbus
Columbus Municipal School District recorded a D overall rating in 2015-16, with its middle school rated as an F.
Further, 16 CMSD third graders were retained for their reading scores last year and the district’s graduation rate hovers around 80 percent.
Superintendent Philip Hickman did not return multiple phone calls and messages requesting interviews for this article, nor did his administrative assistant allow The Dispatch to make an in-person appointment to speak with him on the matter.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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