Dr. Darron L. Edwards, superintendent of the Yazoo City Municipal School District, has released mostly dismal scores from last school year's Mississippi Assessment Program.
“We're not satisfied with where we are as a district,” Edwards said, during the Aug. 11 school board meeting. “We have a high number of students who are in our retest category. We're putting different systems in place, and we started with the leadership.”
He said five administrators in the district's six schools have been assigned to different schools.
“Our expectations are greater,” Edwards explained. “We're going in and changing the systems that were previously in place. If it did not work, we're not going to continue it.”
He said there are “a plethora of things that we're doing differently at each school.... The numbers (assessment scores) may look bad, but we're going to improve. We're going to do it together. It's not one person doing it, it's not one teacher doing it, we have to do this collectively.
“We're not going to continue to do things the same way, so business has changed in the Yazoo City Municipal School District.”
During the school board meeting, Edwards detailed the results of the testing.
Students who scored on Level 1 on the English Language Arts (ELA) test are unable to consistently demonstrate the skills necessary to read and write independently according to the specific grade level standards. Students scoring on Level 2 on the ELA test typically struggle to independently read texts at the appropriate complexity and may show difficulty meeting grade level reading, writing, and language standards without significant support from the teacher.
Students on Level 3 on the ELA test are beginning to independently read texts at the appropriate complexity levels and may or may not meet grade level reading, writing and language standards with little to no support from the teacher. Level 4 on the ELA test is for students who are able to read texts at the appropriate complexity levels, while beginning to read texts at higher complexity levels. They show master of most to all grade level reading, writing and language standards.
Students on Level 5 on the ELA test are able to read very complex texts and show mastery of all grade level reading, writing and language.
On the third grade ELA at McCoy Elementary School, 23 percent scored on Level 1, 48 percent on Level 2, 21 percent on Level 3, seven percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the fourth grade ELA at McCoy, 14 percent scored on Level 1, 50 percent on Level 2, 26 percent on Level 3, nine percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the fifth grade ELA at McCoy, 33 percent scored on Level 1, 32 percent on Level 2, 25 percent on Level 3, 10 percent on Level 4, and 0 percent on Level 5.
On the sixth grade ELA at Woolfolk Middle School, 28 percent scored on Level 1, 38 percent on Level 2, 27 percent on Level 3, five percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the seventh grade ELA at Woolfolk, 16 percent scored on Level 1, 31 percent on Level 2, 40 percent on Level 3, 12 percent on Level 4, and 0 percent on Level 5.
On the eighth grade ELA at Woolfolk, 30 percent scored on Level 1, 27 percent scored on Level 2, 30 percent on Level 3, 12 percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the English 11 assessment at Yazoo City High School, 25 percent scored on Level 1, 37 percent on Level 2, 28 percent on Level 3, nine percent on Level 4, and 1 percent on Level 5.
Performance level descriptors for the mathematics assessment are: Level 1, students scoring at this level will have limited success with the challenging content of the specific grade level standards. Students scoring on Level 2 will usually be able to solve simple, routine problems using standard algorithms and may be able to interpret basic graphs, but may need significant support from the teachers. Students scoring on Level 3 can apply and extend previous understanding of mathematics content but may struggle with accuracy and precision. These students may also need support from their teachers to enhance learning and aid in mastery of grade level tasks.
Students scoring on Level 4 on the mathematics assessment typically apply previous understanding to solve real-world problems, interpret and analyze mathematical relationships in a variety of ways, and attend to grade level precision. Students scoring on Level 5 consistently use appropriate symbolic notation to set up and solve real-world problems by employing multiple problem solving approaches at or above grade level. These students are able to assess the reasonableness of their answers in contexts.
On the mathematics assessment at McCoy, 29 percent of third-graders scored on Level 1, 49 percent on Level 2, 15 percent on Level 3, six percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the mathematics assessment at McCoy, 20 percent of fourth-graders scored on Level 1, 55 percent on Level 2, 19 percent on Level 3, five percent on Level 4, and 0 percent on Level 5.
On the fifth-grade mathematics assessment at McCoy, 13 percent scored on Level 1, 46 percent on Level 2, 36 percent on Level 3, four percent on Level 4, and one percent on Level 5.
On the sixth grade mathematics test at Woolfolk Middle School, 12 percent scored on Level 1, 41 percent on Level 2, 37 percent on Level 3, nine percent on Level 4 and one percent on Level 5.
On the seventh grade mathematics test, 10 percent of Woolfolk's students scored on Level 1, 37 percent scored on Level 2, 44 percent scored on Level 3, 10 percent scored on Level 4, and 0 percent scored on Level 5.
On the eighth grade mathematics test at Woolfolk, 27 percent scored on Level 1, 49 percent scored on Level 2, 21 percent scored on Level 3, four percent scored on Level 4, and 0 percent scored on Level 5.
On the Algebra I assessment at Yazoo City High School, 11 percent of the students scored on Level 1, 48 percent scored on Level 2, 40 percent scored on Level 3, one percent scored on Level 4, and 0 percent scored on Level 5.
On the SATP2 assessment at the high school, U.S. History, 46.4 percent of the students taking the test passed, and 53.6 failed.
On the SATP2 assessment, Biology, 41.9 percent of the students taking the test at the high school passed, and 58.1 percent failed.
On the fifth grade science assessment at McCoy, 12 percent of the students scored “advanced,” 35 percent scored “proficient,” 39 percent scored “basic” and 15 percent scored “minimum.”
On the eighth grade science assessment at Woolfolk, one percent of the students scored “advanced,” 27 percent scored “proficient,” 40 percent scored “basic,” and 32 percent scored “minimum.”
In other school board business, the trustees:
• Heard Edwards report that approximately 1900 students have registered for the new school year. He added that the usual enrollment is approximately 2400. Parents and guardians may register their children online or at the alternative school.
“We set up the alternative site because we did not want to interrupt instruction (in the schools) during the first week of school,” Edwards said.
• Heard Catherine Cowans, a 15-year school bus driver, lodge concerns about a reduction in school bus drivers' hours from three hours daily to two and one-half hours daily, which represents pay reductions of approximately $200-plus per month. “We did not ask for a raise,” she said. “It's not right for us to be cut from three hours after working three years for, I'd say, three hours. And do not compare us with Canton, Madison and other school districts. Compare us to the work that we do. We are the first ones the children meet in the morning, and we are the last ones to drop them off (at their homes). We are for excellence, too.”
• Heard Edwards report that all new personnel undergo background checks. Background checks are also done on all volunteers.
