Ninety-three percent of Attala County School District third graders passed the statewide reading assessment, which ranks the district third in the state.
“I’m real proud,” said Superintendent Kyle Hammond. “We knew our students could do it.”
Attala County School District is one out of seven districts statewide to have 90% or more third grade students to meet the Literacy-Based Promotion Act requirements.
Attala County was only .1% behind the district that was ranked second in the state, which was Newton County School District with a 93.1% passing rate. The top district was Ocean Springs with a 95% or above passing rate.
Greenlee Attendance Center had a passing rate of 93.8%, and Long Creek Attendance Center had a passing rate of 92.0%.
“It took teachers, the students, the administration and all of the support staff who work there, as far as interventionists who worked with our students, all the way from pre-K to the third grade,” said Hammond. “The students who were in that third grade, those are really our students who when COVID hit they were just starting. For a lot of students, that set them back, but they were able to overcome a lot of those deficits, and to bring those kids along took a lot of hard work. I am so proud of our teachers and the work that they did. I’m proud of how hard they worked and the effort they put in to get to that point.”
The Mississippi Department of Education announced in May that 76.3% of 31,623 third graders passed the initial administration of the third grade reading assessment given this spring for the 2022-23 school year. The percentage exceeds the 2021-22 initial rate of 73.9% as well as the 2018-19 initial rate of 74.5% before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I applaud the teachers, administrators, literacy coaches and families who worked to support students in achieving this goal. The work will continue until all students are proficient and showing growth,” said Mike Kent, interim state superintendent of education.
In accordance with the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, third graders who do not pass the initial administration of the reading test are given up to two attempts to retest.
The act became law in 2013 to improve reading skills of kindergarten through third-grade students in public schools so every student completing the third grade is able to read at or above grade level. The LBPA requires Mississippi third graders to pass a reading assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. An amendment to the law in 2016 raised reading-level expectations starting in the 2018-19 school year, requiring third graders to score at level three or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program English Language Arts assessment.
Hammond said none of the district’s third graders have to take the test again. The only students who did not pass the initial assessment meet the good cause exemption and will be promoted to the fourth grade. “This is something for us to be really proud of,” said Hammond.
