The Oktibbeha County school board was unhappy with their district”s test scores Monday when Superintendent James Covington gave the board a partial analysis of the district”s performance on the state standardized tests.
The district”s goal was to have 40 percent or more of their students scoring proficient on the material in all tested areas.
“There are several areas where we didn”t quite get there,” Covington said. “There are specific plans that I”ll talk to you about when we get in executive session.”
The district”s two elementary schools are tested on language arts and mathematics. East Oktibbeha Elementary met the 40 percent-proficiency goal for language arts and math in third grade, but failed to meet those goals in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
West Oktibbeha Elementary met the language arts goal in third and fifth grades and the mathematics goal in third, fourth and fifth grades.
Oktibbeha County School District”s two high schools house grades seven through 12. Seventh-graders take the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2, as do students in grades three through six, while students in grades nine through 12 take subject area tests in English II, Algebra I, biology and U.S. history.
Students at East Oktibbeha High only met the goal of 40 percent proficiency for Algebra I. All other testing areas in all the grades failed to meet the goal, missing it by as few as 4 percentage points to as many as 22.5 percentage points.
Scores at West Oktibbeha County High School were only slightly better. Students met the U.S. history proficiency goal, and seventh-graders at the school met the 40 percent proficiency goal for language arts and mathematics. The high school students at this school .
“This is unacceptable,” said board member Cynthia Ward. “After all the help we brought into the district, this is unacceptable.”
“It needs quite a bit of strengthening there,” board member Yvette Rice said. “It”s going to take children being in the classroom and actually working on academics.”
Covington said the analysis looks just at the percentage of students meeting proficient or advanced and does not look at the progress the district made in moving students from the underperforming minimal status to basic.
The board focused much of their attention on teacher performance and time spent in the classroom on actual instruction.
Rice was concerned with the amount of time teachers are away from the classroom, even to go to professional development and other training opportunities. She suggested teachers not be allowed to be absent for other than “extreme emergencies” in the 30 days leading up to testing. She also questioned what benefit the district receives from the time and expense it incurs in sending teachers and administrators to conferences.
“Some of these people are taking the workshops as basic vacations, as a means to get away,” Rice said. “We”re not supporting this. These people are going to have to be in the classroom and teaching.”
She noted that teachers are paid 12 months of the year, and “they can pick up on some of the summer workshops.”
Herman Bush repeatedly said he would ask questions and make comments in the closed session of the meting, but he did wade into the discussion at one point.
“Teachers need to report exactly the beginning test score,” Bush said, noting teachers are tempted to inflate the test scores on the first round of practice tests so they look good on paper. But the scores aren”t reasonable because they are measured before the skills have been introduced, he said.
They all spoke to the issue of teachers needing to evaluate their students” comprehension of new material and new skills. Students given homework requiring skills not taught in class will not perform well when it comes time to take the state tests.
“Most of what is presented in class in Mississippi is on the test, so if the child goes home and does not understand the skill, they will bomb out” on the test, Rice said.
Ward emphasized the need to use all the resources the district has, including teacher assistants and inclusion teachers.
The rest of the meeting was spent on fairly routine business matters. The board is set to meet again at 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at West Oktibbeha County Elementary School.
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