The racecars on the second-grade hallway at McLaurin Elementary School have powerful engines fueled only by premium brainpower.

To crank up the paper cars and move them down the racetrack, the students must earn points by reading a grade-level book of their choice.

The cars are moving faster than Principal Karen Tutor expected.

&uot;I see them now reading books and I didn’t see that a year ago,&uot; Tutor said.

Reading is a top concern of Tutor’s based on last year’s Mississippi Curriculum Test scores at the school.

&uot;They are not reading on grade level,&uot; she said. &uot;For us to progress and for our community to grow, our children have to be able to read.&uot;

Enter the racecars. For the school’s youngest students, seeing a car with their photo in the driver’s seat is motivation enough to pick up a book, Tutor said. The motivation doesn’t stop in the second-grade though. Each grade has a similar reading program in place and with the higher grades the program becomes two-fold, also encompassing curriculum. Fourth-graders color in a Mississippi county when they read a certain amount of pages; fifth-graders color in a state.

&uot;Research tells us the more you read the better your vocabulary gets and the better your writing gets,&uot; Tutor said. &uot;This is going to make a difference.&uot;

Tutor said part of McLaurin’s job is to take students at the level they start second grade at and make sure they stay on grade level.

&uot;It’s about making sure that at every level every child learns what they are supposed to learn,&uot; she said. &uot;That’s what the MCT measures. You’ve got to have programs that tie those kids in that are behind.&uot;

To raise math scores in McLaurin’s higher grades, the school has undergone some restructuring. Fourth-grade teachers team-teach their subjects, with math on one end of the hall, allowing them to better focus their attention.

&uot;We have people teaching math who know math content,&uot; Tutor said. &uot;And we have spent a lot of money on training teachers.&uot;

Fifth- and sixth-grade math classes are departmentalized like in middle school. Tutor said the school works hard to do everything possible to prepare the sixth-graders for the middle school environment they’ll face at Robert Lewis.

Those students still not conquering the needed skills are now referred to after-school tutoring with the Boys and Girls Club housed at McLaurin. Nine tutors, who teach at the school during school hours, are there to review benchmark skills.

McLaurin also takes advantage of Americorps and volunteer tutors during the day.

Tutor said she depends heavily on community support and is in turn teaching the children their role in the world around them.

&uot;It’s important economically that we teach kids they are part of that community,&uot; Tutor said. &uot;We’ve done a lot of community service this year.&uot;

Being part of a community is learning to respect authority, which Assistant Principal Alice Morrison said is key to solving discipline problems.

To improve Average Daily Attendance and overall test scores, Tutor and Morrison have set a goal of solving discipline problems without removing the child from class.

&uot;We’ve seen a significant improvement,&uot; Morrison said. &uot;Not only the teachers, but the parents and community are commending us. We teach our children to respect authority.&uot;

Morrison said parents are starting to side with teachers and administrators when it came to student punishment.

&uot;We need parents,&uot; Morrison said. &uot;We are showing kids that we are working together.&uot;

Tutor said the key to eliminating bad behavior is keeping children interested in what they are learning.

&uot;As long as they are actively involved they are not going to act up,&uot; Tutor said. &uot;We believe kids who misbehave do so because they can’t read. We are not sending them home; that’s a mindset, a building level expectation.&uot;

Tutor, who is in her second year at McLaurin, said she is starting to see the entire building pull together as a team.

Restructuring the school gave all teachers of the same grade common planning periods so they can meet with each other and with parents.

&uot;We are teaming up,&uot; teacher Evelyn Jeter said. &uot;You don’t feel like you are doing it all alone.&uot;