NATCHEZ &045; Just over 150 Natchez-Adams students will finish up the last round of state re-tests today, proving whether or not they’ve met the required benchmarks.

The math portion of the Mississippi Curriculum retest is being given to fourth- and eighth- graders who failed to pass the test when they took it last spring. Students at Robert Lewis Middle, Morgantown Elementary and McLaurin Elementary took the reading and language portions of the retest Tuesday and Wednesday.

Students who failed the test the first time have received extra tutoring at all three schools in preparation for this week’s test.

Once the results of the retest return the district will use them to decide whether or not the student moves on to the next grade level.

&uot;It’s one criteria used to determine whether they are promoted,&uot; District Test Coordinator Charlotte Franklin said.

An external review committee will review the final averages for the current year, previous MCT scores, attendance and other criteria before making a recommendation for promotion or retention for students who fail one or more parts of the MCT retest.

Students only retake the portion of the test they fail. Morgantown Elementary had no third-graders from last year to fail the math portion, and is now done with retests.

&uot;From talking to the test coordinator and the others working in the testing area, the kids were on task, very attentive to what they were doing and intent on passing the test,&uot; Morgantown Principal Fred Marsalis said.

Marsalis said the school had less than 10 students take the reading and language portions of the test earlier in the week.

McLaurin also had a low number of re-testers, with the majority of the retests given at RLMS.

Principal Bettye Bell said 147 eighth-graders are taking one or more portions of the retest and things were going well so far.

RLMS offered in-school and after school tutorials all year to the students who failed the test last year.

&uot;The teachers have worked very hard to make sure they have been teaching the skills they need,&uot; Bell said.