McAdams High School Principal Andrew McFarland is moving forward with implementation of performance improvement plans after presenting those plans to the Mississippi Department of Education. The meeting was held after the school earned an F rating for the second year in a row.
Whether the MDE will contribute funding to the efforts — or how much that aid might be — is yet to be determined, though Attala County Superintendent Bryan Weaver characterized the response of MDE officials during the meeting as supportive.
“The MDE was very supportive and seemed like they wanted to be there for us in any way they could,” said Weaver. “That might involve some funds, but we are yet to be told if there will be funding and, if so, how much it is.”
Last year, the school received $50,000 in remediation funds from the state after earning its earlier F-rating.
Regardless of any potential funding that might be sent to assist McAdams, Weaver said the district will strive to attain the set of goals that has been established for the school.
“The district is prepared to take on whatever it has to improve our student performance,” according to the superintendent. “They liked that we’re bringing in more support to our bottom 25% of students from last year’s testing.”
In the presentation the district gave MDE personnel, the school has committed itself to attaining the following goals by April 2020, as measured by state assessments:
- math proficiency from 8.5% to 15%
- math low growth from 51% to 58%
- math growth from 38.6% to 45%
- ELA proficiency 23.4% to 28%
- ELA low growth 42.7% to 50%
- ELA growth 38.6% to 45%
- Science 15.65% to 24%
- U.S. History 15.4% to 24%
The district has two specific and distinct efforts planned to attain the goals.
First, McFarland is looking to implement a modified schedule so that students who might not be able to participate in after-school programs can receive tutoring. Students would be directed to spend the latter portion two days per week in classes specifically targeting improving their skills in areas of prior poor performance. This would occure on PLC weeks.
Performance Based Group, a consultancy hired by the district to assist in improvement plan implementation, would also be contributing assistance in these tutoring sessions.
The second major effort would be the creation of a Saturday School program. At this time, the district is still trying to hire instructors from across the district to run the classes. It is also examining ways to provide transportation to and from the program for students. According to Weaver, the district might run bus routes to and from neighborhood churches.
In order to encourage students to participate in the Saturday School program, the school is looking at implementing an incentive program.
Other efforts include recruiting highly-qualified teachers, establishing a parent-teacher organization to engage parents in the process and teacher coaching and training programs.
