South Panola leaders disappointed in MDE scores

By Rupert Howell
South Panola School District earned a D rating in the latest round of accountability results with five of six schools – South Panola High School, Batesville Junior High School, Batesville Middle School, Batesville Intermediate School and Batesville Elementary School – earning a D. Pope School achieved a C rating.
The Mississippi Department of Education recently released letter grades for schools and districts based on the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System.
“Obviously, we are not pleased with the latest ratings,” SPSD Superintendent Tim Wilder said through a news release earlier this week.
“We have already implemented new learning and teaching strategies to improve the overall performance of our schools and the district, and will continue to examine ways to advance the education of all students in the South Panola School District,” the superintendent said.
The accountability system assigns a performance rating of A, B, C, D and F based on points earned for each school and district utilizing established criteria regarding student achievement in reading, math, science and U.S. history proficiency; individual student growth; graduation rate; and College-and-Career Readiness.
Change has been constant in the last three years of statewide student assessment according to the release which explained three different tests covering three different sets of standards that have been administered since the 2013-14 school year.
The latest test, Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP) in 2015-16, is aligned to the Mississippi College-and-Career Readiness Standards. Last year was the first time student assessments were administered completely in an online format, and results were not received until August 2016.
According to the news release in 2013-14, the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT2) used the Mississippi Curriculum Standards to gauge student assessment, while the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career test used Common Core standards in 2014-15.
PARCC accountability results were not received until the summer of 2016.
“It has been extremely difficult to teach to, and administer, three different tests based on three different sets of standards,” Wilder said. “With the Mississippi Assessment Program being in place for the foreseeable future we will have a much better grasp on the content of these standards. We will be able to analyze the results and data to better concentrate on areas of improvement.
District trustees have already approved recommendations for improvement when they recently voted to purchase diagnostic software that creates individual study plans for students with daily monitoring during a special meeting September 8 at the request of the superintendent.
Wilder explained that districts using the software had shown notable improvement stating he wished he had made the recommendation earlier during a called special September meeting.
During September’s regular meeting the board voted to purchase 1,500 laptop computers to, among other reasons, allow students to become more familiar with electronic instruction and testing as opposed to paper test.
During Tuesday’s regular October meeting, trustees heard Technology Director Jay Sandlin recommend additional computer purchases over the next 30 months.
“We have outstanding students, teachers and administrators here at South Panola School District. I have no doubt that we will see improvements as we move forward with these standards,” Wilder said.