The Mississippi Department of Education recently released the statewide results from the 2016-17 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program, which assesses student performance in English Language Arts and mathematics in grades 3-8, English II and Algebra. MAAP is the new name for the Mississippi Assessment Program, which was first administered in the 2015-16 school year. The three public school districts in Newton County made improvements in several grades from the 2015-16.
MAAP tests have five levels. Students scoring at Levels 4 and 5 are considered proficient or advanced in the subject.
Students scoring at Level 4 or 5, the proficient or advanced categories, are meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations. The scores suggest that students have a thorough understanding of grade-level content and are on the right track to being ready for college-level coursework.
Students scoring at Level 3 demonstrate a general mastery of the knowledge and skills required for success in the grade or course, and they are approaching expectations for that grade or course. Students scoring a Level 1 or 2 need more assistance in learning the content and are in need of greater supports.
The Newton County and Union Elementary School third graders scored higher than the state average on the English Language Assessment. For NCES, 42.2 percent of the third graders scored at Level 5 or 4 on the ELA, which was a slight decrease from the 44.4 percent last year. For the NCES 168 third graders, 39.3 percent scored at Level 3, 17.3 percent scored at Level 2 and only 1.2 percent scored at Level 1.
For the 78 UES third graders, 47.4 percent scored at Level 5 or 4 on the English Language Arts assessment, while 34.6 percent scored at Level 3. That was an improvement over the past year when only 34.5 percent scored proficient on the exam. For UES, 15.4 percent of the third graders scored at Level 2, and 2.6 percent scored at Level 1.
For the 85 Newton Elementary School third graders, 25.9 percent scored at Levels 5 or 4 on the English Language Arts assessment, while 34.1 percent scored at Level 3. That is a big improvement from last year’s assessment when only 5.8 percent of the third graders were proficient.
All three school districts made gains in the fifth grade ELA. The NCES fifth graders improved from last year with 50 percent scoring proficient on the ELA, up from 39 percent last year. N.H. Pilate Middle School fifth graders also made a huge jump over the previous year with 34.6 percent scoring proficient, up from only 10.2 percent in the 2015-16 school year. The Union Middle School fifth graders improved from 41.6 percent to 45.7 percent this year.
All three school districts also made gains in the sixth grade ELA, with Newton County Middle School improving from 46.4 percent scoring proficient to 50.3 percent.
Union Middle School sixth graders improved from 48.3 percent to 49.4 percent during the 2015-16 school year.
N.H. Pilate sixth graders jumped from 11 percent to 25.9 percent proficient on the ELA.
UMS seventh graders improved from 36 percent to 51.2 percent, while the NCMS seventh graders improved from 44.2 percent to 45.9 percent proficiency on the ELA.
On the eighth grade ELA, NCMS improved from 39.6 percent to 46 percent proficiency, while N.H. Pilate eighth graders improved from 20 percent to 33.3 percent.
One the High School English II assessment, Newton High School improved from 17.5 percent to 28.5 percent proficiency.
All three school districts made gains in the third grade mathematics assessment. NCES third graders improved from 44.4 percent proficiency to 53.6 percent, NES improved from 5.8 percent to 27.1 percent and UES improved from 34.5 percent to 55.1 percent.
All three school districts also made gains on the fifth grade math assessment. NCES improved from 40.4 percent to 56.8 proficiency, UMS improved from 38.2 percent to 43.4 percent and NHPMS improved from 9.1 percent to 23.7 percent.
The NCMS sixth graders improved from 34.8 percent to 46.1 percent on the math assessment.
NCMS seventh graders improved from 34.6 percent proficiency to 53.8 percent, and UMS improved from 50 percent to an outstanding 77.6 percent.
All three districts improved in the eighth grade math assessment. NCMS improved from 34.6 percent to 38.7 percent proficiency, NHPMS improved from 25.7 percent to 28.8 percent and UMS improved from 50 percent to 50.5 percent.
On the Algebra I assessment, Union High School made a big jump from 35.1 percent to 63.5 percent proficiency and Newton County High School improved from 28.3 percent to 32.5 percent.
Statewide, students showed gains in both ELA and mathematics. The percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations on ELA assessments increased from 32.6 percent in 2015-16 to 34.9 percent in 2016-17, and from 31.1 percent to 36.8 percent on mathematics assessments.
“Student achievement in Mississippi is steadily improving thanks to the hard work and focused efforts of teachers, administrators, parents and students,” said Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. “We have raised expectations for what students can accomplish, and our students are meeting and exceeding these higher expectations.”
Across the state, the percentage of students scoring in Level 1 – the lowest achievement level - dropped in ELA and mathematics, while the students scoring in Level 5 – the advanced level – increased over the previous school year.
Twenty-two districts had greater than 45 percent of all students scoring Level 4 or 5 in ELA, compared to 14 districts the previous year, and 32 districts had greater than 45 percent of all students scoring Level 4 or 5 in mathematics, compared to 15 districts the previous year.
With the exception of fourth grade ELA and English II, student achievement increased in both ELA and mathematics in all grades across the state. The slight decreases in proficiency in fourth grade ELA (-1.3 percent) and English II (-1.2 percent) are due, in part, to significant increases in the number of students taking each test and the large proportion of students scoring at Level 2. Also, among the 3,132 additional students who took the English II assessment, 2,236 had taken the test in a previous school year and scored below proficient.
