Each May, students from Union, Newton County and Newton Municipal school districts join thousands of other public school students throughout Mississippi in taking the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program exams in English and math.
The annual standardized test is intended to evaluate what children in grades K-12 learned over the past 9-months and how well the schools are preparing students for their futures. For teachers and administrators, the tests also provide invaluable data, that gives a blow-by-blow look at how well students grasped the different elements of language and arithmetic. That insight is often a key component of designing lesson plans for the following school year.
From sentence structure to bus drivers, here’s what superintendents at Newton County’s three public school districts had to say about their results and where they plan to go from here.
Union Public School District:
Students at Union Public School District can be proud of their performance on the 2018 MAAP assessment as the district was ranked as one of the top 10 districts in the state in math and one of the top 10 most improved districts in the state in ELA (English/language arts). Third-grade scores were 44.6 percent proficient in ELA, 52.3 percent in math; fourth-grade scores were 65 percent proficient in ELA, 78.8 percent in math; 35.4 percent of fifth-grade students were proficient in ELA, 35.4 percent in math; ELA proficiency in sixth grade was 47.1 percent, math proficiency was 64.4 percent; seventh-grade ELA proficiency was 40.5 percent, math was 67.5 percent; eighth-grade ELA was 51.2 percent, math was 63.5 percent; and 60.9 percent of high school students, grades 9-12, were proficient in ELA, and 82.9 percent were proficient in math.
Superintendent Tyler Hansford said via press release he was very proud of UPSD students’ performance.
“Our proficiency numbers continue to rise across the district,” he said. “That tells me that our students are learning the content they need to in order to master the standards.”
However, Hansford said there is still room for improvement. With a growth-based assessment model, such as the one used by Mississippi Department of Education, students, who perform well one year, tend to show little growth the following year. Hansford said that aspect of the MAAP model is something he, and other educators throughout the state, are working to resolve.
“What we see happening year after year is that, when students perform really well in the previous grade, there’s not much room left for growth, so the following grade takes a major hit when it comes to growth,” he said in a press release. “The truth is, we, like the rest of the state, are still grappling to figure out how to handle this growth-based model in the middle grades.”
Students in Union Middle School, and all students in the district, performed very well in the 2018 MAAP tests, Hansford said. He said students should be proud of their performance. It is on him, he said, and other educators in Mississippi, to figure out how to accurately reflect that performance in test results.
“I take it personal because I led that school until this year,” he said. “I’m owning it just like we’re asking out teacher to. We saw some tremendous improvement, and those students and teachers deserve recognition for the job they are doing. We will figure out how to succeed on this growth model.”
Newton County School District
Newton County School District students also had a great year on the 2018 MAAP assessment, with proficiency rates in all subjects growing from previous years’ scores.
Students in third grade came in at 61.1 percent proficient in ELA and 60.4 percent proficient in math; fourth-graders were 55.5 percent proficient in ELA, 62.3 percent in math; ELA proficiency in fifth grade was 49.2 percent, math was 57.8; sixth-grade ELA was 55.6 percent, math was 62.1 percent; 41.2 percent of seventh-graders were proficient in ELA, 49.3 percent in math; eighth-grade ELA was 54.5 percent, math was 49.2 percent; and high school students were 45.3 percent proficient in ELA and 45.7 percent proficient in math.
Newton County Superintendent J.O. Amis said NCSD students did a great job.
“Across the board our proficiency rate did increase,” he said. “Our acceleration rate, our kindergarten scores. These are some of the positive things we saw in the scores.”
Amis said everyone in the district works hard to make sure the children get a quality education, and the 2018 MAAP scores show the work put in by teachers, parents and community members.
“Our community greatly supports Newton County schools,” he said. “We appreciate it. If we didn’t have the support of our stakeholders, we wouldn’t have good schools. We’re very proud of the accomplishments we’ve made.”
For the 2018-19 school year, Amis said the district will be working to improve on its success to grow even further. This year will be the first for the district’s 4-year-old kindergarten program, he said. Also, the district is working to renovate the old PV building for the future home of a career and technical center.
Newton County School District has a lot going on, Amis said, but all of the programs, buildings and lessons are intended to provide students with the best education possible.
Newton Municipal School District
Students and faculty at Newton Municipal School District are celebrating as the district was named the top district in the state for growth in math proficiency on the 2018 MAAP assessment. The improvement shown across all grade levels was greater than any other public school district in Mississippi.
In third grade, 43.1 percent of students were proficient in ELA, and 48.6 percent were proficient in math. Fourth-grade ELA proficiency was 39.8 percent, math was 51.1; ELA and math in fifth grade were both 16.4 percent; Sixth-grade ELA was 45.5 and math was 42.9 percent. In seventh grade, 23.3 percent of students were proficient in ELA, and 40.7 percent were proficient in math; Eighth-grade proficiency was 24.1 percent in ELA, 29.1 percent in math, and high school students scored 24.5 percent proficient in ELA and 39.7 percent in math.
Superintendent Nola Bryant said for her first year, the MAAP scores were “fantastic.” Prior to taking the job at NMSD, Bryant said she saw some trends in the data that told her there was room for improvement. Once she started, she said she worked with teachers and administrators to address those issues, and it seems to have paid off.
“When I got here, I looked at some things from a trend in Newton Municipal School District and found out there was some gaps,” she said. “I saw where there were areas needed for student improvement.”
The mission of NMSD, Bryant said, is to prepare students for success. The work she and her staff have done within the district is based on that mission, she said.
“How will this help the children,” she said. “That is the question I ask about everything I do as superintendent.”
The 2018 MAAP data show progress is being made, Bryant said, but there is still room for improvement. With a solid foundation of programs and tutors in place for math, she said this year, NMSD would look toward bringing the assessment scores in English and reading up as well.
