Students pumped up for test performance|[5/02/06]
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Elementary students across the Vicksburg Warren School District are in the throes of standardized tests, and teachers are asking parents for help.
“Parents need to make sure to get the students here on time,” said Judy Williams, character education teacher at Redwood Elementary School. “Make sure they get to bed on time and, if they’re nervous, calm them down.”
The students at Redwood are among the district’s 5,200 in grades 2 through 8 being tested today, Wedensday and Thursday as part of the Mississippi Curriculum Tests.
The tests are designed to test children on the statewide curriculum. The state’s curriculum is based on stringent and nationally accepted education standards.
Scores are returned in mid-July, and pass or fail is determined in each content area. Students will be placed in one of four performance levels based on their scores. Those levels are minimal, basic, proficient and advanced.
“Vicksburg Warren schools have always met adequate yearly progress,” said Debra Hullum, administrative assistant to the superintendent. “This test is one snapshot of these students; it shows us their progress or lack of. The test helps define the district’s areas of strengths and weaknesses.”
Over 4,800 Vicksburg Warren students took the MCT in 2005.
The Mississippi Department of Education will use the results of the tests to judge how well schools are performing in the state’s school-based accountability system. For each school, educators will examine the percentages of students who score at the proficient level and beyond and the percentage of students who improved from 2005 to 2006.
The U.S. Department of Education will use the same results to determine whether schools have met “adequate yearly progress” required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Just as with the Mississippi accountability system, goals in No Child Left Behind also are based on percentages of students at the proficient level and beyond.
Schools scoring at the bottom under Mississippi’s accountability system could be labeled “priority” schools and receive intense state help. Teachers, principals and superintendents at those schools could ultimately lose their jobs if student performance doesn’t improve in three years.
At Redwood, teachers on Monday tried to make the students comfortable and pump them up for the tests.
Teachers and teacher assistants performed a skit written by Williams that focused on “Peter Pan” characters mustering the courage to take the tests.