Natchez High School has a problem that’s hard to fix &045; apathy. After students take the Mississippi Curriculum test in lower grades for five years, the state requires high school students to take different tests, this time with more severe consequences but countless times to succeed.

Subject Area Tests are given in six subjects, and passing each test is required for graduation. As the students near completion of the respective course they take the Subject Area Test for the first time. If they fail they have five more chances each year to take the test and pass before graduation and can even continue to take the test past their graduation date.

The tests are given in Algebra I, Biology I, U.S. History, English II multiple choice, English II narrative and English II informative.

The high school offers year-round tutoring in each subject area two times a week for almost two hours.

And the tutoring has a proven record of success.

&uot;Those that go to tutoring generally pass the test the second time,&uot; district Assessment Coordinator Charlotte Franklin said.

Guidance counselor and school test coordinator Carolyn Jenkins agreed, saying the numbers show the tutoring works.

The problem is getting the students to attend.

&uot;One of the biggest problems we have with seniors is they work and think they can’t afford or don’t have time to come to tutoring,&uot; Jenkins said. &uot;The apathy of the students about taking advantage of the tutoring offered is a problem.&uot;

Principal James Loftin told the school board last week the school has contacted parents asking them to help make it possible for their children to attend the tutoring.

&uot;We have not gotten the full support of the parents,&uot; Loftin said. &uot;We cannot get the vast majority of them to attend those sessions.&uot;

Jenkins said the Subject Area Tests are designed to test the material taught in the class and that all of the high school’s teachers are aware of the test concepts, and yet the school still has a high percentage who must retest.

The primary administration of the test is in the spring and test results come back in July. Franklin said parents are notified then if their child did not pass.

Typically the high school, and the state, does well on the U.S. history portion of the test but struggles with the English II tests.

Franklin said she thought the students had trouble understanding the difference between the narrative and informative sections of the English test and therefore answered the written part of the test the wrong way.

NHS English II teacher Irma Caldwell said many of the students did misinterpret the directions on the writing portions of the test, even though they’d taken several practice tests and been warned to pay close attention to the questions.

&uot;All of our curriculum is built around the test,&uot; Caldwell said. &uot;Every objective is test generated.&uot;

Though scores were low in the writing portions of the test last year, Caldwell said typically students do well on that part and score lower on the reading test.

The low reading scores can be blamed on laziness, Caldwell said.

The students must answer 85 questions spread across 47 pages on the un-timed test, and Caldwell said the test sometimes looks overwhelming to them.

&uot;They attempt to answer the questions and don’t really read the selection,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s apathy, or you could just call it being lazy. It has to get real to them, and in the 10th grade it doesn’t seem real.&uot;

When a student scores poorly on the English II practice test in either August or January, Caldwell mails a letter to the parents recommending the child receive tutoring before the real test in April.

Loftin, who is in his second year as principal, has set a goal of raising the performance on the English II portion of the test to a 95 percent passage rate.

Caldwell said she did expect to see scores go up in the future because benchmark tests given in lower grades are requiring students to master skills before moving on.

She also stressed that the English portion of the exam tests ongoing skills taught from elementary school on up.

&uot;It’s not something that you learn within the framework of a few months. There’s no study sheet,&uot; she said.

The high school is also working to improve attendance, but Loftin told the school board the school struggles to get students older than 16 &045; the cutoff under the truancy law &045; to be there on a regular basis.

NHS is trying to lower the number of out-of-school suspensions to keep students in school and is offering rewards for those with good attendance. A drawing for a computer will be held later in the year based on attendance.

Loftin’s other goals include improving discipline and safety on campus and maintaining a high graduation rate.

Loftin said the number of school fights has decreased and students are doing a better job reporting problems to the office.

The high school had a 92.4 percent graduation rate last year, while the state’s rate was 81.3 percent.