Less than two-thirds of Columbus Municipal School District’s third-graders passed the reading gate this year on the first try.
The Mississippi Department of Education will not release statewide and district results until after the State Board of Education reviews them Thursday, Public Information Officer Shanderia Minor told The Dispatch. Nevertheless, CMSD made its results public at a trustees meeting Monday.
Districtwide, 62.7% of CMSD third-graders passed the initial exam, according to the board meeting presentation, a 2% decrease from last year.
Four of its five elementary schools improved marginally from last year. But Franklin Academy, where the pass rate dropped from nearly 90% last year to 54% this year, brought down CMSD’s average.
Superintendent Stanley Ellis attributed the decrease at Franklin to the majority of the school’s staff being new hires.
“For the most part, all of the people that were there last year are pretty much gone,” he said. “Sixty-five percent of that staff — from principal to counselors to third-grade teachers — all those people are new, so we kind of expected (the decrease).”
At Cook Elementary, 66.6% of students passed on the first try, increasing 2.2% from last year. Of students at Fairview, 71% passed, up 4.3% from last year. Sale’s pass rate increased by 5% this year with 65% of students passing. Stokes-Beard increased the most from last year, by 6.2%, with 55.3% of students passing.
Since 2013, state law has required third-graders to pass the reading exam before moving to the fourth grade in an effort to increase literacy.
Students who did not pass the exam have two chances at a retest before they are held back. Pass percentages tend to rise dramatically after retesting.
Overall, 138 CMSD students failed to meet the minimum proficiency required to move forward. Those students took the first retest last week.
“If they fail that time, those are going to be students that are going to be in summer school,” Ellis said. “They’ll get intentional remediation centered around the third grade gate and passing that test.”
The district currently has 56 students enrolled in the summer school program that will focus on passing the reading exam, though that number could change with the second round of test scores. Students in summer school will take the second retest at the end of June.
Minor told The Dispatch the final report will be released once it has been presented to the State Board of Education. That will likely happen during the board’s regular meeting on Thursday, she said.
Officials from both Lowndes County and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated school districts told The Dispatch they would not be sharing their reading scores until MDE releases the final report.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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