Natchez elementary students scored so high on their first exit skills pretest that school officials think the test was too easy.

All first- through sixth-graders took the tests, with passage rates ranging from 12 to 98 percent for different grades and subjects.

&uot;(The tests) indicated we need to revisit the types of questions we asked to make sure more higher-order thinking skills were included,&uot;&160;said Mary Kate Garvin, assistant superintendent of elementary education.

The test is designed to assess student knowledge of grade-level skills and prepare them for state tests in the spring.

Joyce Johnson, elementary supervisor, agreed the tests needed to be changed.

&uot;The teachers were really shocked on each grade level (that the students) did as well as they did,&uot; Johnson said.

This test is one of three tests students will take this year and was written by local teachers.

&uot;(The teachers) are doing a wonderful job,&uot; Garvin said. &uot;Our teachers are working together for one common goal – the education of each and every child in our schools.&uot;

Students took the first test in September. They will be tested again in December and in the spring.

The tests will be upgraded prior to the December test date, Johnson said. &uot;I don’t think we wrote the test items in a manner that challenged the students,&uot;&160;she said.

For example, 98 percent of the sixth graders at McLaurin received a successful 67 percent on the reading/language arts section. And 98 percent of the sixth-graders at Morgantown earned a successful score in reading.

McLaurin second-graders also did well, with a 71 percent passage rate in English.

In December the stakes will be higher and the scores may reflect that. Not only will the test be more difficult, but students may have to make 80 percent to pass, Johnson said.

Teachers will eventually use the scores to monitor student progress during the year.

&uot;That’s a measure of a student’s growth as well as a teacher’s growth,&uot; Garvin said. Teachers’ grow with the children.&uot;

By the spring of 2001, students will be sent to extended &uot;summer&uot; school or repeat a grade if they don’t master all the skills, Garvin added.

Kindergartners at West and Frazier primary schools were also tested but took the professionally-made Brigance

Test instead of one written by local teachers. Kindergartners at Frazier had a 50 percent passage rate, while 25 percent of West kindergartners passed the test.