More Golden Triangle and statewide third graders are moving on to fourth grade.
The state Department of Education released this week the results from the first retake of the statewide third grade reading assessment and more than 5 percent of third graders who failed to pass it the first time have now passed.
Results of the first test — which was taken by every Mississippi third grader in April — showed that 15 percent, or 5,600 students, failed. Of those, about 2,400 passed the first re-test on May 18. Now, 91 percent of state third graders are eligible for promotion.
Local district showed noticeable improvement.
Columbus Municipal School District, which had 19 percent of its 364 third graders fail the initial test, now sits at a passing rate of 89.66 percent. CMSD students who have yet to pass the test are working with teachers this month. Performance on the test varied widely inside the district, with Sale Elementary School posting over a 95 percent passing rate, while Fairview Elementary remains at 86 percent of students eligible for grade promotion.
In Lowndes County schools, the re-test has put the district above the 95 percent passing threshold.
LCSD had a 93 percent passing rate on the initial test. Assistant superintendent Dr. Robin Ballard said Caledonia Elementary School has passed all of its students who do not qualify for “good cause exemption,” a status granted to English Language Learners and Special Education students.
New Hope Elementary School now has a 94 percent passing rate. Ballard said there are four exempt students at New Hope and seven who are receiving tutoring before the second retest. West Lowndes Elementary, which now has a 92.5 percent passing rate, has three students being tutored in hopes of promotion. The tutored children are receiving three hours of instruction every weekday in June, Ballard said.
“We secured stipends for teachers to use researched-based strategies to work with our students,” Ballard said.
Starkville, Oktibbeha County
Starkville School District also improved on its results, but not at the rate of other local schools. SSD now has a 87.5 percent passing rate, up from 85 percent in April. SSD has 11 good cause exemptions, and superintendent Dr. Lewis Holloway told The Dispatch last month 52 of the 55 students who failed the test on the first attempt had been under district monitoring since the first grade.
There is an additional window from June 26 to August 7 when students can try to take the test one more time.
This is the first year of implementation for the Literacy Based Promotion Act, which requires all third graders pass a 50 question computer based reading test to advance to the fourth grade. There are currently 3,415 students who will repeat third grade should they not pass the test on the third attempt.
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