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District Passage Rate on Third Grade Summative Reading Test Above State Average
Superintendent Glenn Harris is pleased to announce the results of the Mississippi Third Grade Reading Summative Assessment. This assessment is part of the Literacy-Based Promotion Act. The purpose of this act is to improve the reading skills of Kindergarten and first through third grade students. The results show that the intensive work by our faculty and staff at all three elementary schools has resulted in a high passage rate on this assessment.
Simpson County third graders have a passage rate of 89%. The state average passage is 85%. Of the 144 districts in the state, 59% of the districts have a lower passage rate, 4% have the same rate, and only 37% have a higher passage rate. The SCSD also has a higher passage rate than most of the districts in the nearby areas. The passage rates for those districts are: Copiah-78%, Covington-83%, Hazelhurst-61%, Hinds-85%, Jackson Public Schools-72%, Jeff Davis-84%, Rankin-92%, and Smith-93%.
Simpson Central School has a passage rate of 96%. This places SCS in the top 10% of the 428 elementary schools in the state. Mendenhall Elementary School has a 92% passage rate and places that school in the top 31%. Magee Elementary has a passage rate of 84% placing that school near the state average of 85% and with 40% of the elementary schools in the state scoring lower than Magee.
A review process is now in place to determine which students who failed the assessment may qualify for a good cause exemption. The district anticipates that SCS will have one student, Mendenhall will have 6 students and Magee Elementary will have 3 students who will meet the requirements for the good cause exemption and will not be retained in third grade. This review process should be completed by the end of the week. The remaining 20 students who did not pass will re-take the assessment the last week of school. If a student does not pass at that time, the school district will provide an intensive reading intervention program for those students during the month of June and the students may take the test again at the end of June. Students who do not pass the third attempt, will be retained in third grade. All parents have been notified of the assessment results.
Superintendent Harris states, “These assessment results demonstrate the great gains that we have made in reading. Implementing the Early Learning Success Initiative in all of our schools, as well as new phonics and language programs have made a big difference. Highly qualified teachers, support staff, and administrators have made the greatest impact. They are to be highly commended for their outstanding efforts and their willingness to go the extra mile to assist our students in becoming on-grade level readers.”
Article submitted by the Simpson County Central Office/Glenn Harris
