NATCHEZ — In May the students of the Natchez-Adams School District will be taking the MCT2 for only the second time.

And this year’s scores will provide the data needed to implement a new state grading system for districts across Mississippi.

This year’s scores will be evaluated against the first year’s scores to provide the first gauge of improvement, or failure for schools.

The MCT2, first implemented in 2008, replaces the MCT as the state’s standardized test that judges the performance of third through eight-graders in reading, language arts and math.

In studying the data the Mississippi Department of Education will be implementing a new labeling system to identify a school’s progress on the test.

The new labeling system will replace the old 1 – 5 ranking system where a five was the highest score.

Schools will now be evaluated as either a star school, high performing, satisfactory, low performing, academic watch, at-risk of failing or failing.

Mississippi Board of Education Deputy Superintendent Kris Kaase said the new scoring system is meant to reflect the increased rigor of the MCT2.

And Kaase said the stress and anxiety in some districts that came with the initial implementation of the first round of the MCT2 is now being felt as districts are preparing to be revaluated with the new labeling system.

“This is our first year to have comparable data,” Kaase said. “And folks normally feel anxious about anything new.”

Natchez-Adams School District Superintendent Anthony Morris said he, and some school principals, have some apprehension about seeing the new school evaluations.

“The bar has been raised,” Morris said.

Kaase said since the MCT2 was made deliberately more challenging than the MCT, he sympathizes with the anxiety being felt in the districts.

But the test was made more challenging with the student’s success in mind, Kaase said.

“People realize there’s a lot to do (to improve scores),” he said. “There’s a lot of hard work to be done.”

And doing that hard work takes time.

Morris said he believes it could take up to three years for the district’s students and teachers to adjust to the new test.

“It’s going to take time,” he said.

Morris said he’s particularly sympathetic to the teachers who are now adjusting to teaching students in preparation for the new test.

Kaase said he hopes the scores from this year’s MCT2 and the new classification for schools will be ready by September.

Morris said he’s hoping the district scores at least satisfactory or above.

And right now there’s no way to predict, he said.

“We just don’t know,” he said.

This year’s MCT2 testing starts May 5.