By ADDIE DAVIS, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo The Tribune Content Agency
TUPELO - The final results are out, and third grade students in Tupelo nearly matched the statewide average in reading ability, while third graders in Lee County, Oxford and Lafayette County surpassed the average, according to the Mississippi Department of Education.
The MDE announced on Nov. 7 that 84.0% of Mississippi third graders passed the third grade reading assessment after the final retest for the 2023-24 school year.
"Though the pass rate is slightly lower than 2022-23 (84.9%), third graders achieved an all-time high proficiency of 57.7% in English Language Arts (ELA) for the 2023-24 school year," the MDE press release reads. "The increased ELA proficiency rate marks a continuous upward trend since 2016 (33.6%)."
In the Tupelo Public School District, 83.2% of 2023-24 third graders passed their assessments after the final retests. That number was 84.7% for the Lee County School District, 86.1% for the Oxford Public School District, and 84.3% for the Lafayette County School District.
The Literacy Based Promotion Act (LBPA) - passed in 2013 and amended in 2016 - promotes reading skills for students in kindergarten through third grade. It requires all third grade Mississippi public school students to score "Level 3" or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program - English Language Arts (MAAP-ELA) test in order to progress to fourth grade. Students who don't pass can also receive "good cause exemptions," which allows students learning English or who have disabilities to move on to fourth grade even without passing the reading assessment.
TPSD and Lee County SD administer the MAAP-ELA test in April. Students who fail the first test were retested May 6-10. The second retest window was June 17-28.
After the final retests for the 2022-23 school year, the state average pass rate was 84.9%, the TPSD's rate was 85%, the Lee County SD's rate was 89.3%, the OPSD's rate was 88.3%, and the Lafayette County SD's rate was 85.4%. All four districts' pass rates dropped from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
The drop in score did not surprise Lee County SD's director of student assessment, Stephen Adams. The 2023-24 third graders were in kindergarten in 2020-21, when most COVID-19 pandemic remote schooling took place. Much of that cohort of students did kindergarten from home, and many of them stayed home for first grade, as well. The MAAP-ELA test results were actually a bit better than Adams was expecting.
"We were realistic about the results that we might see, and we were pleasantly surprised by the results," Adams said.
Moving forward, Lee County SD is focused on providing teachers the professional development they need to provide their students the best education possible. The district hopes and expects to see MAAP-ELA performance improve as a result.
TPSD shifted third grade curricula in the 2023-24 school year away from test preparation and toward more practical reading skills, TPSD Deputy Superintendent Kim Britton said in May after the first round of retests. That the third graders' reading-assessment pass rates remained largely steady was an excellent sign.
Ultimately, though state testing is important, Lee County schools are more focused on overall student success, Adams noted.
"We want these kids to be prepared," Adams said. "We want them to have integrity and character modeled for them each day, and we want them to learn the necessary prerequisites to be successful."