Thursday, the Mississippi Board of Education will determine the passing score for the third grade summative assessment.
According to the Mississippi Department of Education’s website, beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, a student who scores at the lowest achievement level in reading on the assessment for third grade will not be promoted to fourth grade, unless the student meets the good cause exemptions for promotion.
The move is a result of the 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, designed to emphasize grade-level reading skills for students in grades kindergarten through third.
According to language in the act, good cause exemptions include limited English proficiency, students with disabilities, teacher input, a demonstration of a acceptable level of reading proficiency on an alternative standardized assessment and intensive intervention. More about the act can be found at http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/docs/curriculum-and-instructions-library/lbpa-code-section-37-177-1-et-seq.pdf?sfvrsn=2.
Pearl River Central School District Assistant Superintendent Nina Guthrie said she feels the district’s third graders did well on the test.
“Since we don’t know the cut off score or our student’s scores, we have no way of knowing how they performed yet,” Guthrie said. “After the score is determined, we will receive our students’ scores either Thursday or Monday.”
Guthrie said student’s skills are identified through Measures of Academic Progress assessments, which alerts teachers to a student’s skills and weakness. The assessments allow for individualized literacy training.
The district also provides remediation or tutoring, where officials look at a student’s skills and identifies those who are weak in phonics and word recognition. The district also will host a summer reading program this year, Guthrie said.
The test is not the only guideline for promotion, Guthrie said. There are many other factors involved, including teacher input, she said.
“Teachers know more about a student’s ability because they are with them all year and they know whether they are capable,” Guthrie said.
Third graders who not pass the first test will have a chance to retest at the end of this month and from June to August, Guthrie said.