One wouldn't know it from reading the Clarion-Ledger but the Jackson Public Schools District made a substantial improvement in the third grade "reading-gate" tests this year. JPS students performed very poorly on the tests last year as 28% of the district's third-grades failed the test. The Mississippi Department of Education began testing for third-grade literacy last year after the Legislature passed the mandate as part of Governor Bryant's education reform package.
It is no small understatement to say that the JPS 2015 results were very troubling. 23 out of 36 JPS elementary schools saw 25% or more of their students flunk the test in 2015. Two schools had failure rates of nearly 50% while another had a failure rate of 40%. Think about that for a second. Nearly half of the third grade students at three schools were not literate.
However, it appears some teachers, coaches, and students buckled down for the 2016 tests. The worst failing rate was 38%. Only 9 out of 36 schools suffered failing rates of more than 25%. 24 schools improved upon their 2015 scores. 6 schools saw their scores rise but they were less than 5% and several were less than 1%- a fractional difference. The improved reading abilities of JPS students will hopefully transfer into higher ratings for Jackson schools.
Canton students performed much better on the tests as well. The District failure rates are:
District/2016 failure rate/2015 failure rate
Canton: 19.8% (31%)
Clinton: 5.5% (2%)
Hinds County: 14.2 % (15%)
Jackson: 20.6% (28%)
Madison County: 5.1% (4%)
Pearl: <5 br="" nbsp="">
Rankin County: 6.7% (8%)
Kingfish note: Compare the story told by these scores to the headline in the Clarion-Ledger:
Hoo-rah. Nice headline that misses the whole story. 2,369 students v. 336 students is not exactly a valid comparison but who wants to nit-pick. Half-full v. half-empty, tis the eternal question.
These scores are welcome progress. It's much easier to fix these problems in third grade than later in life. One year of frustration is easier on a child than 15 years of frustration in school because one never learned how to read. JPS still has much progress to make in teaching children to read but these scores are a good start.
Here are the individual schools in the Jackson metro area and their 2015 scores.
Key
Blue = improvement, Red = decrease
District (grade)
School, % failed, grade, (last year's % failed)
Canton (D)
Canton: 26.8%, C (C, 38%) -11.2%
Jimmie M. Goodloe: 6%, D (D, 22%) -16%
Rueben Myers: 19.8%, C (C, 28%), -8.2%
Clinton (A)
Northside: 5.5% B (A, 2%) +3.5%
Hinds County
Bolton Edwards: 12%, C (C, 23%) -9%
Gary Road Intermediate: 13.6%, D(D, 14%) ---
Raymond: 16.9%, (11%) +5.9%
Utica: 18.8%, C (C, 17%) +1.8%
Jackson
Baker: 26.7%, B (B, 32%) -5.3%
Barr: 25%, B (B, 20%) +5%
Bates: 16.4%, B (B, 26%), -9.6%
Boyd: 22.5%, C (C , 33%) -8.5%
Brown: 11.1%, D (D, 15%) -3.9%
Casey: <5 -----="" 2="" a="" p="">Clausell: 27.1, D (F, 33%) -5.9%
Davis Magnet: <5 -----="" 0="" a="" p="">Dawson: 21.3%, C (C, 48%) -26.7%
French: 17.1%, D (F, 32%) -14.9%
Galloway: 27.6%, D (D, 26%) +1.6%
George: 10%, A (A, 21%) -11%
Green: 24.2%, D (D, 32%) -7.8%
Isable: 11.9%, D (D, 29%) -17.1%
John Hopkins: 11.3%, D (D, 30%), -18.7%
Johnson: 16.4%, C, (C, 26%), -9.6%
Key: 11.9%, B (B, 14%) -2.1%
Lake: 10.5%, C (C, 24%) -13.5%
Lee: 33.3%, C (C, NA) ----
Marshall: 18.8%, C (C, 35%) -16.2%
McLeod: 23.8%, B (B, 23%) +.8%
McWillie: <5 ----="" 0="" a="" p="">North Jackson: 20%, C (C, 33%) -13%
Oak Forest: 22%, C (C, 25%) -3%
Pecan Park: 17.1%, C (C, 31%) -13.9%
Pointdexter: 14.3%, C (C, 30%) -15.7%
Raines: 14.3%, D (F, 47%) -32.7%
Smith: 24.3%, C (C, 24%) ----
Spann: 11.6%, C (C, 19%), -12.4%
Sykes: 37.7%, C (C, 48%) -9.3%
Timberlawn: 34.9%, C (C, 31%) +3.9%
Van Winkle: 26.6%, C (C, 26%) +0.6%
Walton: 15.4%, B (B, 18%) -2.6%
Watkins: 34.9%, C (C, 34%), +0.9%
Wilkins: 27.2%, D (D, 27%) ----
Woodville Heights: 23.8%, D (F, 40%), -16.2%
Madison County
Camden: 10%, C (C, 10%) -----
East Flora: 12.3%, C (C, 13%) -0.7%
Highland: 10.8%, C (C, 7%) +3.8%
Luther Branson: <5 ----="" 3="" a="" p="">Madison Avenue: <5 ----="" 1="" a="" p="">Madison Crossing: <5 ----="" 2="" a="" p="">Madison Station: <5 -----="" 1="" a="" p="">Mannsdale: <5 ----="" 4="" a="" p="">
Pearl
Northside: <5 -5="" nbsp="" p="">
Rankin County
Florence: <5 -1="" 6="" a="" span="">
Flowood: 5.1%, B (B, 12%), -6.9%
Highland Bluff: 5.7%, A (A, 10%) -4.3%
McLaurin: 14%, B (B, 7%) +7
Northshore: <5 ----="" 2="" a="" p="">Northwest: 5.9%, B (B, 3%) +2.9%
Oakdale: <5 -3="" 8="" a="" span="">
Pelahatchie: 7.5%, B (B, 5%) +2.5%
Pisgah: 6.7%, B (B, 14%) -7.3%
Puckett: 10.5%, A (A, 11%) ----
Richland: <5 -6="" 11="" na="" nbsp="" span="">
Stonebridge: 8.2%, NA (NA, 9%) -0.8%
8 comments:
Thanks for reporting this. You're right, I wouldn't have guessed it from other media outlet reporting.
And the Jackson SoS was recently selected sup of the year by the National Association of School Superintendents (NASS). NASS was established in 2009 and is located in shared office space with the California ASS in Sacremento. They have between 1-10 employees but the number of members of NASS is not known. Their primary purpose appears to be assisting members to network for better paying jobs.
Missing Northwest Rankin Elementary?
Thanks for this helpful comparison. Can you fix the figures for Madison Station and Crossing? Difficult to tell what happened to their scores as there seems to be a bug in the figures you gave here.
It is amazing to me that most of the students in the school I attended many years ago could read before starting the first grade. I hear of students graduating high school from JPS that still cannot read... How is this possible? If the third grade reading level is below average, where is the failure? Doesn't this training begin at home with the parents, and continue through, at least, high school? Are the parents of today TOTALLY DEPENDENT on the school system for all their children's training? Sad, so sad......
This is thrilling news and was one of Governor Bryant's main focuses when he first became governor. There was a time when we predicted how many prison beds we would need based on 3rd grade scores. Every child that becomes literate has a much better chance to graduate and lead productive and satisfying lives. Hooray for 3rd Grade Gate
If the test scores are low change the test. If kids are not learning to read, don't use that as part of the test. If kids cannot do simple arithmetic, give them a calculator. If they can't spell get them spell check.
How about if we just hand out diplomas if the kids show up? Guess that would have to be changed as many do not show up.
All a person has to do to see how bad our schools have become is to look at how the children in the U.S. compare to children in other countries.
There were several schools missing. I posted what was available on the MDE report.
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