NATCHEZ &045;&045; One hundred percent of students at proficient levels by 2014 is the ultimate goal of school districts around the nation as set by federal standards through the &uot;No Child Left Behind&uot; act.

The Natchez-Adams School District is no different.

The test scores from the spring of 2003 serve as a baseline year for improvement in all Mississippi schools.

Most of the scores improved from last year,

a &uot;test&uot; year of scores that did not count toward state achievement and growth levels. The real &uot;test&uot; will be this year’s results, which will be measured against 2003’s results to determine adequate yearly progress, growth and achievement.

For the next year, the Natchez-Adams School District will work to improve their test scores again through various avenues.

First, teachers will attend workshops to help them teach the curriculum to align with what students will be tested on, according to Joyce Johnson, director of curriculum and instruction.

&uot;We will continue to use the teach, test, reteach, retest procedure,&uot; Johnson said.

For third- and seventh-graders, who take the benchmarks, there is remediation for those that do not pass the first time and they will be retested in January. The benchmarks are set on the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT).

Also, the district has software &045;&045; Classworks and Classwells &045;&045; that have tests students can take to prepare for the MCT.

&uot;Each year they have used them has strengthened teacher’s skills to use software effectively,&uot; Anthony Morris, superintendent of education in the Natchez-Adams County School District, said.

This year, 90 percent of third graders passed the reading benchmark, 95 percent passed the language and 97 passed math. Throughout the state, the passing rate was 95, 97 and 99 respectively.

For seventh graders in the district, 82 percent passed the reading benchmark, 90 percent passed the language and 59 percent passed math compared to 92, 95 and 79 percent, respectively, statewide.

In the writing assessments for 2003, 98 percent of Natchez-Adams fourth graders passed, but only 12 percent were at proficient levels or above.

For seventh graders, 83 percent passed in the district with 17 percent at proficient level or above.

High school students in Mississippi take the Subject Area Testing Program (SATP) in Algebra I, Biology I, U.S. History (from 1877) and English II &045;&045; multiple choice and writing.

Students starting with freshmen entering high school in 2002-2003 must pass these tests to graduate, phasing out the Functional Literacy Examination (FLE).

In 2003 testing, 46.4 percent of Natchez-Adams students taking the Algebra I test passed, 73.9 percent passed Biology I, 87.9 percent passed U.S. History, 68.7 passed the multiple choice portion of the English II test and 95.2 passed the writing portion.

However, not all of the students that did not pass these tests will have to retake them.

Because some students who took Algebra I last year but were not freshmen last year, they only have to pass the FLE, not the SATP.

Students take these tests as they complete the subject in school, causing some eighth grade students to take the Algebra I test. In fact, 100 percent of the eighth graders that took the Algebra I test in 2003 passed it.

The district recognizes the strengths and the weaknesses in the district, hoping to capitalize and continue the strengths and work toward improving the weaknesses.

With a low percentage passing the Algebra I test in high school and lower scores on the MCT for seventh and eighth graders in math, Johnson said the &uot;area most pressing is the area of math.&uot;

Johnson and Morris said they will offer &uot;no excuses&uot; for problem areas but will work on problems. Math is a problem in the state as well as the district, posting the lower scores on tests, Charlotte Franklin, district test coordinator, said. This summer, teachers were given workshops in AIMS, a program that integrates math and science and makes it more hands-on.

Johnson said more abstract teaching of math after the third grade and less hands-on approaches are one thing the district and AIMS focused on to help to help teachers teach math.

With AIMS, the teachers learned, &uot;how to use hands-on activities with students in order to help the learning process,&uot; Johnson said. Taking these test scores, now the district from the department heads to the teachers and principals, will make necessary adjustments for students to improve.

&uot;Principals will take each individual student’s test scores and recognize their deficiency, and they will be taught accordingly,&uot; Johnson said.

Morris said problems will be addressed &uot;by school, by grade and by teacher.&uot;

Morris inherited these test scores in a sense, just getting his first school year as superintendent underway. He said he thinks he has put a good team of administrators together that will work to continue to raise test scores.

Morris said he already outlined his expectations for this year when the administrators met for their annual retreat before school began, setting the tone for the year.

But Morris does not deny there are areas to work on.

&uot;I would like to increase the focus on the secondary level,&uot; Morris said.

He said the district has worked hard on kindergarten through sixth grade but really wants to concentrate more energy to subject area testing.

The strengths according to Johnson are that &uot;all of the schools showed growth.&uot;

And what is the district doing right to improve those scores?

&uot;Maximizing the use of the instructional day,&uot; Morris said. And, he said, they will continue to do so.