Preliminary test results, released today, show Mississippi students are gaining ground in math and language arts. Local school districts also are making progress on the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2.
But for now, Mississippi is only competing with itself. In the years to come, the state will be one of many adopting Common Core Standards, with the same set of tests and standards for each state. It will be the country”s first time comparing apples to apples when looking at standardized test results.
This year, statewide, every grade — from three through eight — had a higher average score in math and language arts than last year. And for the first time, more than half of students in all tested grades performed at proficient or advanced in language arts.
Students are considered proficient when they have mastered the skills needed to move on to the next grade and advanced when their mastery is beyond what”s needed to be successful in the next grade.
“The increasing language arts proficiency shows that our efforts with literacy and our emphasis on rigorous standards are having a positive effect,” state Superintendent of Education Dr. Tom Burnham said in a press release. “These results demonstrate that students will rise to our level of expectation. As we continue to expect more from our children, our children will excel.”
Columbus Municipal School District
In Columbus schools, where in past years, students have fallen well behind the state, average scores are beginning to catch up with state averages. In many areas, the district is less than a point behind the state average.
Dr. Martha Liddell, interim superintendent for Columbus schools, expects that gap to close as programs such as the magnet school concept are fully embedded.
“Research tells us that it takes three years to really embed an instructional reform,” Liddell said. “There has been a time when we were dramatically below the state average, so we are closing the gap.
“The data trends look pretty solid. We”re keeping pace with the state,” she continued. “We feel like, overall, we”ve had a successful testing cycle.”
Last year, the Mississippi Department of Education labeled the Columbus Municipal School District as “at risk of failing.” While MDE won”t release those accountability labels until September, Liddell expects an increase in the district”s quality distribution index, a scale used to determine how successful a district has been.
Columbus and surrounding districts already are hand calculating those QDIs to see where they”ll fall in comparison to last year.
MDE will use districts” QDI and other indicators to rate schools and districts, from highest to lowest, as “star, high performing,” “successful,” “academic watch,” “low performing,” “at risk of failing” or “failing.”
Lowndes County School District
“Preliminary indications are that the district will show an increase in its QDI over last year,” said Edna McGill, assistant superintendent for Lowndes County School District.
“In most schools, we decreased the percentage of students performing minimal and basic, and we increased the number of students performing proficient and advanced,” she added.
Students” scores are considered minimal when tests indicate they have not mastered the skills needed to move on to the next grade and basic when they display a need for extra help with skills in the next grade.
“Overall, we showed a significant growth in language arts and math,” McGill said.
Lowndes County students had a higher average score than last year in language arts in every grade except third and fifth. And students performed higher than last year in math, in every grade except fourth. The district outperformed the state in every grade.
“We always have the expectation that we can increase student achievement more each year, and we always set goals to do that,” McGill said. “If our QDI is above last year, we will have had four years of increased achievement, so we just have the expectation that we will continue to show increases in student achievement … and show growth from the previous years.”
Lowndes County, last year, was labeled a “successful district.” It also boasted the only star school (Caledonia Elementary) within a hundred-mile radius.
Starkville School District
Starkville School District outperformed its scores from last year in language arts and math, in every tested grade except the sixth. It only outperformed state averages in eighth-grade language arts and science, but fell below the state in language arts and math in every other grade.
Last year, the district was labeled as “under academic watch.”
Oktibbeha County School District
Oktibbeha County schools outperformed its scores from last year in language arts and math in grades four, five and eight, but fell below in third, sixth and seventh grade. The district fell below the state in every grade in both language arts and math.
Last year, the district was labeled as “at risk of failing.”
Subject Area Testing Program
Statewide, high-schoolers taking the subject area tests had a higher average score in Algebra I, U.S. history and English. Biology results will be released at a later time, since there was a new test this year.
The percent of students passing the subject area tests in Algebra I and English increased from last year, most notably in algebra, from 79.6 percent passing to 85.4. U.S. history stayed steady with 93 percent passing.
In Columbus schools, students performed higher than last year on the algebra and English tests, while falling below last year on the U.S. history test. The district also increased its percent of students passing the algebra test, from 68.4 percent to 83.1; history, from 86.7 percent to 87.5; and English, from 51.5 to 71.7 .
In Lowndes County schools, student increased their average score on the algebra test, while falling below in history and English. In algebra, the percent of students passing rose from 74.1 percent to 79.7 percent, while falling from 96.3 percent to 91.2 percent in history and from 68.7 percent to 65 percent in English.
In Starkville schools, average scores rose above last year in algebra and English but fell in history. The district increased its percent of students passing the algebra test, from 67.9 percent to 81.3 percent, and the English II test, from 65.9 percent to 72 percent, but fell from 94.6 percent passing the U.S. history test to 90.3.
In Oktibbeha County schools, students” average scores fell in all three subject areas, and its percent of students passing fell from 55 percent to 51.1 percent in algebra, from 86 percent to 79.3 percent in history but rose from 36.1 percent to 42.6 percent in English.
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