Mississippi’s rigorous new educational standards are intended to provide students with the tools they need to succeed, the state superintendent of education said Wednesday.
“Improving outcomes for children and making sure that they are ready for college and career when they walk our stage is a very, very important job to do,” Dr. Carey Wright said during a meeting of the Greenwood Voters League.
Wright said the state was given an “F” grade for the second year in a row in academic achievement in Education Week’s Quality Counts, a nationwide study.
In the National Assessment of Education Progress, another nationwide measure, just 21 percent of the state’s fourth-graders and 20 percent of the eighth-graders were proficient in reading, Wright said.
Wright said a turnaround has been noticed.
“Since we implemented the College and Career Ready Standards, our proficiency rates have been climbing,” she said, adding that the state average ACT score was up to 19 — the highest in 20 years.
Wright said the standards are intended to ensure that all children are proficient and showing growth, “regardless of their ZIP code, regardless of how much money their parents make.”
Part of that involves increased professional development for teachers and principals, she said.
Since new promotion standards went into effect for third-graders, Wright said, the department has hired 78 literacy coaches and placed them in the 125 lowest-performing schools in the state.
Other moves include holding regional parent meetings in an effort to increase reading at home. Those efforts have paid off, with 91 percent of third-graders passing this year, Wright said.
In Greenwood, she said, the passing rate ranged from a high of 92 percent at Bankston Elementary School to a low of 62 percent at W.C. Williams Elementary School.
The Greenwood School Board voted last month to close W.C. Williams at the recommendation of the district’s superintendent, Dr. Montrell Greene, who attended Wednesday’s Voters League meeting.
Students who didn’t pass have until Aug. 7 to take the test again, Wright said.
She said parents should be informed throughout the school year on whether or not their children are performing at grade level.
Wright said under new annual assessments for grades 3-8, which are based on more rigorous standards, test results are likely to drop slightly at first before coming back up.
Wright said another priority is making sure that every student graduates high school and is ready for college or a career.
“A strong economy is going to be based upon a well-educated populace,” she said. “Your state board and I are committed.”
She said the standards are up for public comment on the department’s website, www.mde.k12.ms.us, for the next 90 days. Although public comment is sought and will be taken into account prior final adoption, Wright said it was not a referendum on the standards themselves.
Wright said another standard calls for every child to have access to an early-childhood program.
“It is far cheaper to educate children at a young age than to remediate children at an older age,” she said.
A Kindergarten Readiness Test showed that two out of three children in the state were not ready for kindergarten, she said.
The statewide score this spring was 680, she said.
Greenwood schools had a score of 448 in the fall and a score of 621 in the spring with Bankston receiving a score of 697.
“We’ve got to be ambitious,” Wright said.
When asked about the state’s standards in relation to Common Core, Wright said keeping the state’s standards ensured that Mississippi would continue to receive $800 million in federal funding — 24 percent of the department’s total budget.
“The one thing we need to do is make sure we hold onto the money and then to spend the money wisely,” she said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
