Posted by Lilsister (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 1:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Thank God for the eight grade teachers and students! Consistent teaching does make a difference. Teaching the rules for math and language arts should be mandatory. When will the Natchez Democrat print the scores so the public can see them? It does not appear that the money spent on consultants is solving the problem. Scores twenty percent below the state average are not good enough. Fire the consultants and try something different!

Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with you Lilsister.......our school system is a disgrace.

Like I've said before, the kids are not the problem, they're waiting out there like little sponges ready to absorb good, consistent teaching.

And thanks for Sekufele Lewanika, in her short tenure she's made all the difference, which proves that sometimes even (doctor) Morris and his band of idiots can get lucky. That numbskull HR moron of his probably only hired her because he liked her pretty name.......like my Grandpa used to say, "even a blind hog can scratch up an acorn every now and then." And Lewanika....well, she's a winner.

Congrats, kids---keep up the good work.

--mojo

Posted by Lilsister (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 7:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Mrmojo, Sekufele Lewanika is a man from some part of Africa. I am sure he knows the importance of a good quality education. By the way, your grandpa was right.

Posted by wakantonka (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 7:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)

'scuse me.....I meant no harm......HE is a wonderful educator, and I'm glad we have him.

Thanks for the heads up............

--mojo

Posted by pbl1978 (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 8:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Lil-sis, and wakantonka thank you for the comments on the principal at RLMS. Some of us are so quick to judge and doesn't know half of what we are talking about. And to those who are so quick to judge and critize other's than remember Noah didn't build the ark in one day. To the faculty and staff at RLMS keep up the good work and continue on working with our kids, because in case we don't know they are our future. Dr. Morris you have to remember if they talk about our God and did him the way they did, than what you think they think about you. I have always been told when someone is saying something negative about you, and you know that it's not true, that look like a little jealousy in the picture. Also those negative comments only make us stronger, didn't our God continue to hang on the cross? :) Didn't say a word, but just Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Have a Bless Day!!!!!

Posted by pbl1978 (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 8:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Lil-sis, and wakantonka thank you for the comments on the principal at RLMS. Some of us are so quick to judge and doesn't know half of what we are talking about. And to those who are so quick to judge and critize other's than remember Noah didn't build the ark in one day. To the faculty and staff at RLMS keep up the good work and continue on working with our kids, because in case we don't know they are our future. Dr. Morris you have to remember if they talk about our God and did him the way they did, than what you think they think about us. I have always been told when someone is saying something negative about you, and you know that it's not true, that look like a little jealousy in the picture. Also those negative comments only make us stronger, didn't our God continue to hang on the cross? :)

Posted by SouthernMiss05 (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)

WAY TO GO RLMS! ONE OF MY FRIENDS WAS A MATH TEACHER THERE LAST YEAR AND SHE SAID YALL WORKED VERY HARD FOR SUCH RECOGNITION!

Posted by juju (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Mojo, wonkantonka? Are we having a Native American discussion now? Anyway, I'm not celebrating yet. I'm glad we went up, but hooray the scores are getting 'closer to the state average?' I don't think so! My goodness, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas are at the bottom nationally already and we can't get up to THAT average? And if you'll notice, most scores are still under 50%tile. I was impressed, however, that 57% are now proficient in minimal math knowledge, and congrats to the students and teachers for the growth and progress they did make. Let's keep going!

Posted by Prayingforachange (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 10:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Prayingforachange (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 10:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I have met the Principal of RLMS, I am so happy the proof is in the pudding of the scores......YIPEEEEE and CONGRATS to the Prinicipal, his Administrative Staff and Teachers, The Custodial and Cafeteria Staff all of them including the parents and the Kids themselves....

I am proud of you, so happy for each of you....for it truly takes a village to raise a child....

Posted by Hambone (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 10:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Do the private schools take this test?

Posted by LOVESNATCHEZ (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"HAMBONE", The private schools aren't required. These tests are given due to the "no child left behind" program. That's why the education is less in public schools. They have to lower the bar. In Mississippi , the private schools are governed by The Mississippi Private School Association and it requires higher learning equivalences.

Posted by headchick (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 11:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)

The shame of it is that the public schools must share the federal dollars provided by NCLB with the private schools, but only the public schools have any accountability for it! Without testing, I'm not sure that every private school is providing "higher learning equivalences" (whatever that is:).

Posted by marinefrmntz (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 1:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I still think most of the problems getting blamed on the school systems nationwide are parenting problems, but that just my opinion from observing. Congrats to the students for their accomplishments and its nice for ND to highlight them. Hey ND when are we gonna get some investigative reporting?

Posted by LOVESNATCHEZ (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 1:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)

"headchick",.... the SHAME of it is we (private school) have to SHARE OUR TAX DOLLARS WITH THE PUBLIC SECTOR. It is a waste!!! Not one penny of tax dollars go to private schools.... Where did you make that up? There were more the 150 seniors at NATCHEZ HIGH last year who didn't graduate. That's really some high powered teaching from some teachers who were "dumbed down" to get their certificate of teaching. "Learning equivalence": Private students in the 4th grade read at an 8th grade level....equivalent to a 4th grade public student reading on a 2nd grade level. Any more questions????

Posted by marinefrmntz (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 1:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

@LovesNatchez,

Yes but thats not every child and I dont think that is the teachers fault. Besides that you have to see what the kids grades are in other classes, maybe they aren't interested in learning. Cant blame the teachers and the schools for everything.

Posted by LOVESNATCHEZ (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Oh I totally agree "marine".. I certainly didn't mean to say teachers should do it all. Parents have got to step up and take responsibility. I think it should be mandatory that parents have a monthly meeting with teachers to really see what's going on before it's too late to correct the problem. Parents have just got to get more involved. I always laughed at progress reports; how many do you think are forged? lol.

Posted by Teach4Peace (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 4:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)

This good news is refreshing and I am so proud of the students at RLMS!!! Way to go to you, for paying attention, getting down to studying, your efforts are paying off! Thanks to the teachers for their efforts in an often thankless job! Keep up the good work!!!!

Posted by juju (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 5:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)

My friends that are teachers have just about all taught in every school in town, private, public, Vidalia, then back again. Especially when they retire from one and go to another. They're all the same and it's not them.

Posted by unclered (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 6:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well done RLMS! A 31 point leap that places the school's ranking 5% points above the state average is a monumental achievement. Hard work and discipline pays off. Keep up the great work and strive to go even higher. YOU CAN DO IT!

Posted by Swapmeet (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 7:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)

As an educator, I must address all of the commenters who blame the school system's teachers as the problem. Just as in all aspects of the economy (the private and public sector), we have people who do not care about their jobs. These few give the majority a bad name. I can attest to the fact that most teachers pour their heart and soul into the children of our school district. Unfortunately, many of the kids we teach do not care about themselves or their education. No matter what type of motivating, cajoling, or implementation of tough love you may administer, some children just choose not to learn. It's very sad but is not the fault of the teachers.

Posted by natsanus (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 7:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Outstanding. The efforts of the entire school and the community made this possible.

Posted by marinefrmntz (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)

@LovesNatchez, I think that is a great idea making it mandatory that parents meet with teachers at least once a month. I know they have the PTA meetings, but that is great idea!! The kids that aren't learning or aren't performing up to standards I can almost promise that something is going on at home. These may be the kids out late at night causing problems in the community, when they should be in the house doing their homework and learning. Im pretty sure they dont have a good learning environment at home.

Posted by thinkforyourself (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Have you people read the MAARS report on the MDE web site? The scores are absolutely absurd. The ND scores 100% on sugar coating. Morgantown principal must be sleep. His comment is beyond reproach. His school did not score 50% in nothing. They got a lot of work to do, hell I don't think they ever got started. 24%of the 6 grade proficient out of 100 in math, 31% 5 grade proficient in math, Reading/language arts 30% proficient grade 5, 34% 6 grade proficient in reading language art. If it took 5 years to get 56% and each year the state keeps raising the bar, how long will it take to compete on the state level as a whole. Keep your eyes open and lets see how they are going to be rated. I bet its going to say FAILING I can just hear the administration saying how pleased they are with the exception of 2 Dr. Barnette, and Dr. Wright.

Posted by DUCKHUNTER (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

when i was in private school, we did take standardized tests, from 1st grade up until about 9th. it let the school know where we were (education wise) and what (the school) needed to brush up on. if they still do this i do not know, but we did take the tests just the same.

Posted by thinkforyourself (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 9:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Look out Trinity, ACCS, Cathedral. Public school parents will be knocking your down trying to get in.

Posted by mrbobo (anonymous) on August 25, 2009 at 11:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Half the teachers can't even speak correct english. Fred marsalis being one of them. He was my teacher in high school and he never could even correctly complete a sentence. I swapped from private school to public school in the 7th grade and i was at least 2 years ahead of the students in the public school. It's a combination of alot of parents that don't care and alot of teachers that are stupid. Plain and simple.

Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 12:09 a.m.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

Posted by juju (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 2:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)

headchick, you're wrong regarding sharing NCLB money with private school. NO SCHOOL accepting the funding can do it without the requirements and accountability. Private schools just don't accept the funding. Besides, if they're producing mostly collge-bound students with exceptional SAT's, ACT's, etc., they wouldn't need it. NCLB is for improving. Some private schools do accept the funding for whatever reason, and therefore do have to meet the same guidelines. I believe, for example, that Cathedral does. And you see what their scores are. It's all about MINDSET AND STANDARDS. What's sad is to see 'dummying down' of the state tests and 'teaching to the tests' and it still doesn't help. And in the mean time, the arts, foreign languages, gifted studies, etc. get negelected with all of this. This is one of the advantages of private school. They may not have a lot of federal money, but they have the freedom to teach a well-rounded curriculum.

Posted by marinefrmntz (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 3:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Whats really dumb is this:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/ind...

If anyone can say this isn't crazy then they must be crazy.. (Just My Opinion). What in the hell is he thinking... why would you create a separate diploma?

http://blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2009/...

Posted by marinefrmntz (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 3:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)

@ MrBoBo thats because they aren't English teachers... lol. IMO language should be about communicating anyway.. A person can speak proper English, but if he isn't understood it doesn't do him any good. People have different accents and dialects anyway, I find it hard trying to understand what some people from different regions of this country are saying sometime no matter if they are saying it the right way or not.

Posted by Lilsister (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

MrBoBo, You are certainly correct about the use of standard Enlish by many of today's teachers. Examples
are very important for students. Many of the teachers today murder the English Language. It does not matter whether one majored in English or not, subject-verb agreement should have been learned in grade school. Maybe we should bring back teaching grammar, and perhaps the teachers will learn along with the students.

Posted by unclered (anonymous) on August 26, 2009 at 1:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)

thinkforyourself: What does RLMS' 8th grade math scores have to do with Morgantown's scores? Some people just have to say something negative.

Posted by trulyblessed (anonymous) on August 27, 2009 at 1:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Natashakubelikov,
How can you say that about children, that they come out dummies. You have a tendency to make some very stupid, uneducated comments. I for one don't think that these tests should determine whether or not a child graduates from high school. Everyone is not a test taker.

Posted by juju (anonymous) on August 27, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)

trulyblessed, that's a rather generalized statement don't you think? How else would you measure if a child has mastered core knowledge? And national testing is a 'check and balance' to make sure that districts aren't watering down the standards just so their stats will be high.

Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on August 27, 2009 at 10:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

juju---when I lived in Iowa my youngest daughter started kindergarten. Iowa has one of the best school systems in the US. One of the basic requirements is parental involvement. The parents are required to sit in on classes, do cross-walk duty, lunch room monitor duty, playground duty, etc....

...and every employer is involved too, for they allow time off with pay for the parents.

It is a good system...and it works. The parents know the teachers, they know each other , and it becomes a real family as your child progresses through their education. They have small neighborhood elementery schools thru the 6th grade. The middle schools (7th -9th grades) are fewer and larger, but still within a localized area. The high schools are bigger and combine the entire area where the kids and the parents grow up, and the parental obligation continues through-out the entire program. In our area there were 6 elementery schools, two middle schools, and one high school. The middle schools combined their athletics...so, if your parents didn't move, you were a West Des Moines Deacon forever.

One of my favorite things was the middle school 6th grade play. Each year the 6th graders from both middle schools got together to perform "Romeo and Juliet". It was a tradition. The first through fifth graders looked forward to doing it and the 7th through the 12th graders all came back to watch the 6th graders.

Our guys could learn alot about running a successful intergrated school system that benefitted the entire area.

--mojo