When it comes to test scores, many rural school districts in Mississippi dread the day they arrive.
That’s quickly becoming a dated mindset for the Sunflower County Consolidated School District.
SCCSD Superintendent Miskia Davis has just completed her first year as the district’s head honcho, and the numbers - especially for the area’s third graders - are encouraging to say the least.
“We were excited. Not surprised, but excited,” Davis said about the recent scores for the district’s third graders on their English Language Arts Assessments. “We knew we were putting in the work, but it shows that what we are doing is working.”
Mississippi’s Third Grade Gate was created through the legislature about five years ago.
It requires third graders to be able to pass an exam that shows they are able to demonstrate phonetic skills, reading comprehension and other reading skills.
They must pass this exam in order to advance to the fourth grade.
SCCSD’s pass rate on this assessment in 2016 was at 83 percent. That rose to 87 percent last year, and after testing and retesting in 2018, the district’s pass rate is at 95 percent.
That is higher than the state average of 93.2 percent this year.
While scores for this assessment are up across the board in Mississippi, Sunflower County’s elementary students are performing better than most of their peers within the Delta region.
Even prior to retesting, the pass rate for the county was at 92.5 percent.
Humphreys County tested 149 third graders this year, with an 85.6 percent pass rate, according to official data released by the Mississippi Department of Education this week.
Out of 193 tested in the Leflore County School District, 85 percent passed, and Greenville Public Schools had an 87.9 percent pass rate.
The Cleveland School District had an 88 percent pass rate out of 263 test takers, and Clarksdale had an 81 percent pass rate. (Data from other Delta counties do not reflect scores after retesting).
As far as the individual elementary schools in Sunflower County go, their pass rates are as follows: A.W. James at 100 percent, Carver at 93 percent, J.C. Rosser at 100 percent, Inverness at 91 percent, Ruleville Central at 100 percent and East Sunflower at 87 percent.
Davis said the secret to Sunflower County’s recent success was simply a change of culture.
“I think the most important thing was that we all had to get on the same page,” Davis said. “There is no option of failing.”
Davis said that reading was always one of the district’s biggest struggles, but she said administrators have put special emphasis on this recently, and the district plans to ramp up these efforts in the coming school year.
The standards for the Third Grade Gate test are only getting tighter, she said.
“This year, we are spending a lot of money on a new reading program,” Davis said. She said she hopes that investment will bring the school closer to a 100 percent pass rate.
For Davis, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the future of education in the county, and the district has another round of scores from state testing due in the middle of this summer.
She’s not nervous about those at all.
“We are so looking forward to our scores coming back at the end of June and seeing how our students and teachers have performed,” Davis said. “They are the ones who have put in the work. I’m expecting scores we can all be proud of.”
Currently, there are 13 students enrolled in the Third Grade Academy at Rosser Elementary. These are students who have yet to pass the third grade assessment. They will be given a chance to retest at the end of the summer, hopefully bringing the pass rate above 95 percent.
Success Across the Board
Davis does not want to just see success at the elementary level.
She said she would like to see the high schools improve their graduation numbers as well.
Out of 147 graduates in May, Gentry High School had a 76 percent graduation rate, and Ruleville Central High School had a 75 percent graduation rate out of 95 students to walk, according to data from SCCSD.
Davis said administrators like Reginald Bolden (Gentry’s Principal) are changing the culture at the high school level, offering incentives to students to attend school.
“If they are at school, we can do our job and impart that knowlege to them,” Davis said.
Also, there is an alternative route to graduation through the Families First for Mississippi organization.
Families First Director Ben Gaston said that if students are having difficulty passing their state tests or specific courses in school, they can enroll in the organization’s online diploma program, which does not require state tests.
“They must take at least four courses,” Gaston said, adding that there are 21 credits required versus 24 in the regular school setting. “When they’ve completed the course, they get credit for it. They graduate from New Summit School.”
Gaston said this is preferable to the GED, because instead of simply taking a test and passing, students have to take the courses and learn the material.
“They have to take the course,” Gaston said.
When students receive their diplomas, it counts toward the graduation rate of the local school district.
“And it should, because they are the ones who have put in all of the work,” Gaston said.
To add to what Families First offers high school students, Gaston said it is currently enrolling students in its Summer Literacy Program, which helps students ages 5-10 and in grades 7-9.
For middle school students, Families First offers ACT prep, and the program for the younger students helps improve reading skills, supplementing what the district is doing throughout the school year, Gaston said.
The Summer Literacy Program will be conducted in two phases this summer.
