Third-graders get three shots before a new school year begins to pass the state reading assessment to be promoted to the fourth grade.
Almost all third-graders at West Lowndes Elementary got it done the first go-round. After the second test, 100% passed.
“It’s a team effort,” third-grade teacher Lesley Jones said. “We’re constantly, myself and (Josephine) Sherrod who is the other third grade teacher, meeting and seeing different strategies and techniques that may work for each other’s classes. … We teach them that everybody makes mistakes, and no one is better than anybody else. In this we learn that everybody may look different, but they also learn differently.”
At Lowndes County School District, where West Lowndes is one of three elementary schools, 86.8% of third-graders passed the reading assessment in April. After the second test given earlier this month, only 10 students will need to take it a third time.
For Columbus Municipal School District, only 64.7% passed on the first try. After the May retest, roughly 43 students (17.7%) will need to take the test a third time.
At Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, 73.7% passed the first try. District representatives did not provide The Dispatch any results for the May retest by press time.
Exam time
The round of students that just finished third grade were on the brink of finishing kindergarten when COVID-19 hit, and they were in first grade when learning was a hybrid of remote and in-person.
To prepare students for the exams, the two third-grade teachers at WLE said they reached out to parents and revisited standards that would be addressed on the exam.
Principal Robert Sanders said parent participation has been crucial to their students’ success, and they believe having small class sizes aid in addressing students’ needs more effectively. He said the school has about 90 to 100% of parent participation.
“Before the assessment actually took place, the third grade teachers did a parent meeting and quite a few parents came out,” Sanders said.
“They got the chance to look at some sample items and a chance to work with their children as they worked through those samples.”
When a student doesn’t pass the first exam, teachers focus on what a student struggled with the most of the three sections on the reading test — fiction/nonfiction, informational text and language — before the first retake.
This is not specific to one school, though.
Franklin Academy third-grade teacher Fernanda Windham said before the second test, she had the students write letters of encouragement for the students who had to retake the test. Nearly 90% of Franklin students passed on the first try.
“The test has a lot of weight, but we also have to remember these are kids as well,” Windham said. “We did notes with encouraging words. Some students wrote to all the students who didn’t pass and some just wrote to one. I had a really sympathetic group, and they wanted everybody to pass. … I put little snacks in the bags for (the kids who had to retest).”
Across the region, third grade teachers use data to craft students’ individual plans to help them pass on the next two tries. The first retest was given May 8-12, and the final retest will be June 19-30.
Jones said leading up to the retest, one way the teachers and interventionists help is by going over how to number paragraphs and look for key detail words in passages that are also in the question.
However, the districts in the Golden Triangle are out of regular school days soon after the second test is administered. Windham said parents should not wait for summer school to start before helping their child who needs to take the June test.
“I send a copy of their test results to the parents because they need to know,” Windham said. “I talk to the parents and tell them they need to take (the children) to the library. They need to have grade-appropriate material because the test is on the third-grade level. We look at the part they score the lowest in and make sure they have the books for it. I send home questions that can go with any kind of text. But they need to start even before school lets out.”
Opportunities for extra instruction
Students needing to take the final test in Columbus Municipal School District can attend the Summer Reading Academy in June, and those in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District can attend summer intersessions to have one-on-one time with instructors.
Julie Fancher, principal at Henderson Ward-Stewart Elementary in SOCSD, said between the first and second tests students are remediated in smaller groups for longer periods and assessed in smaller groups to increase focus.
Overall one-on-one time from teachers and parent participation are the consensus for supporting the students who did not pass the first time.
“The path to the third grade (reading assessment) doesn’t start in the third grade,” Windham said. “Even when babies are born, read to them. Nightly reading is the best reading, and if you can’t do it nightly, find some time in the daytime. It’s not just reading books but signs on the highway, the back of cereal boxes, just reading.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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