Kindergartners and pre-K students in Leflore and Carroll counties rank below the state average in preparedness and reading ability, according to test scores released this week by the Mississippi Department of Education.
The assessments are intended to gauge how well the public schools are preparing students in the earliest grades for further educational success.
The state average for pre-K students was a score of 554. For kindergartners, that score was 686.
In the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District, a little over half of pre-kindergartners met the target score of 498 points.
The target score reflects a mastery of 70% of early literacy skills and puts students on track to meet reading expectations by the end of grade 3, according to the state Department of Education.
Kindergartners in the district showed less progress, with only 36% meeting the target score to help them achieve reading expectations by third grade.
James Johnson-Waldington, the recently installed superintendent of the Greenwood Leflore district, attributed the low scores to a few factors.
“There were some tested areas that lost instructors during the school year,” he said. He also blamed “absenteeism both in staff and students and of course a learning lag from COVID.”
Leflore County Elementary scored the lowest in the district, with only 22% meeting the target score, and Bankston Elementary scored the highest with 47%.
Carroll County kindergartners had roughly 44% meeting the target score.
The lowest score in the state went to the Hollandale School District in Washington County, where only about 19% of kindergartners showed preparedness for grade 3 reading expectations.
In contrast, the highest score in the state went to Enterprise School District in Clarke County, where 81% of students were tracking to meet grade 3 reading expectations.
To combat low reading performance, Johnson-Waldington proposed more engagement showing students that their teachers and administrators care for them.
“They must have an environment conducive to academic success. The saying ‘Students don’t care what we know until they know that we care’ is absolutely true,” he said.
Percentage of students meeting target score:
GREENWOOD LEFLORE CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT
District: 35.67
Bankston Elementary: 47.37
Brown Elementary: 46.75
Davis Elementary: 23.64
Leflore County Elementary: 22.22
Threadgill Primary: 35.29
CARROLL COUNTY DISTRICT
Marshall Elementary: 44.44
MISSISSIPPI 57.67
