Lining the halls of Starkville High School, names emblazon yellow-and-black-painted cinder blocks above the classroom doors.
Each block represents a student who scored advanced on high-stakes subject testing in December. In the coming weeks, the students will get another shot to place their name on the wall.
The window for Mississippi Assessment Program testing opens Tuesday and runs through mid-May. During that span, public school students in grades 3-8 will take annual exams for English and math, while students in fifth and eighth grades will also take science exams. Of those, third grade reading comprehension is considered a “high-stakes” test, meaning students are required to pass it before being promoted to fourth grade. Even students who fail that test this week, however, will have two more chances to pass before being retained.
On the high school level, students take high-stakes subject area tests — in Biology I, Algebra I, U.S. History or English II — at the end of each semester. They must pass each before qualifying for graduation.
That wasn’t a problem for third-year SHS biology teacher Ashley Edwards in the December, when every one of her students passed the Biology I exam. Many of those scored proficient or advanced, and she expects no different this semester.
“We take an entire week before the test and go back to day one,” she said Thursday. “I’ll print off a 27-page study guide reviewing all of the standards we’ve learned, and we’ll go through all of it again.”
Edwards’ dad was a biology teacher, she said, so she’s been exposed to the material her entire life. Her teaching tactics, though, make her a student-favorite.
“The main thing is key words and getting them into their head,” she said. “I’m not afraid to be myself and be a little crazy. The weirder I am, and the louder I sound, the more that helps them remember. I sometimes jump around and act it out, too.”
For teachers like Edwards, the proof is in the pudding.
“She’s a phenomenal teacher,” said Assistant Superintendent David Baggett. “And that’s not just what her students, her principal or her coworkers say. The numbers back it up.”
Baggett notes Edwards is far from the only one in the district who fits that bill.
Ready for ‘Game Day’
High stakes or not, all of the exams heavily factor in the district’s, and each individual school’s, accountability grade from the Mississippi Department of Education.
In 2015-16, SOCSD was rated a C district overall, with Ward Stewart Elementary (then grades 3-4) and SHS each earning a B. Armstrong Middle School (grades 6-8) scored lowest among campuses still open, earning a D (The since-closed East Oktibbeha Elementary received an F, but those students have been consolidated with other district campuses).
Last year was also the first where former Oktibbeha County School District students consolidated with the former Starkville School District. The consolidation sparked some fears accountability scores would temporarily drop, Baggett said, since OCSD was under state conservatorship and many of its students lagged academically.
However, with all the schools maintaining their ratings through the first year of consolidation, Baggett said it speaks volumes to the possibility of SOCSD soon becoming an overall B district.
“It starts with literacy,” he said. “Our kids have got to be proficient readers. They can have all the content knowledge they want, but if the child can’t read or decipher what a specific question is asking, it doesn’t matter what they know about the content.”
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, something Baggett said should also help improve scores.
Baggett said he looks as testing days much like sports game days, with every instructional day throughout the year designated as intense practices. He said he is confident the teachers have adequately prepared the students at all the districts’ campuses.
“A week or two before the game, you’re fine-tuning things,” he said. “At this point, you can’t go back and teach new skills.”
‘Whole-child’ education
At Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary, now a campus for grades 2-4, the third grade teachers buy into Baggett’s philosophy. They’ve been teaching the standards all year, and the tests are just where students “show what they know.”
Those teachers, however, are also quick to say they haven’t been “teaching to the test,” but rather integrating the standards into academic and life-skills lessons they can use beyond next week.
For Nancy Sistrunk, a 20-year teaching veteran, that partially entails field trips — lots of them.
Her students have gone hiking and bird-watching at the Sam D. Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, where they write journal entries about their experiences and the science they learn. She’s even taken students to a local cemetery, where they practice rounding, addition and subtraction with the information on the headstones, measure area and perimeter and learn how to write epitaphs.
The more tangible the learning is, Sistrunk contends, the better it sticks.
“You’ve got to start somewhere to build background knowledge,” she said. “You’ve got to teach them something besides how to read a textbook.”
Nicole Thomas, SOCSD public relations director, said Sistrunk’s strategy fits well with the district’s overarching philosophy of “whole-child” education.
“Nobody wants to be consumed with testing to the point we lose out on artistic expression and exploration,” she said. “We need a healthy balance.”
Still, the exams are important.
This year, 12 SOCSD students repeated third grade due to their 2015-16 reading test scores. On top of that, third grade is the first state-testing year for students, adding an extra bit of anxiety to the “high-stakes” situation teachers work to calm throughout the year.
“I want my class to be the best, and (the exams) are how I judge if I’m successful as a teacher,” said Monica Nunn, who is in her sixth year at Ward Stewart. “We prepare these kids from day one, and we let them know they have to do their part. … But really, we want these kids to love learning because that’s what it’s all about.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.