By Leah Schwarting

NATCHEZ — Some Natchez-Adams third-graders will have a final shot at advancing to fourth grade Wednesday when they retake a reading assessment test.

The Third Grade Reading Summative Assessment test is a serious one for third-graders. If students do not pass, they will not be able to proceed to the fourth grade.

The 2014-2015 school year was the first time that the Literacy Based Promotion Act took effect.

“The act requires that every third-grader take and pass the third grade reading summative assessment,” Aquetta Butler, Natchez-Adams School District accountability and assessment coordinator, said.

Students at Susie B. West Elementary, McLaurin Elementary and Joseph L. Frazier Elementary first tested In April.

The results came out In May, and the district scored an 81-percent success rate, ranking them slightly below the state average.

The district’s success rates were higher than expected, Butler said, and the district performed higher than other schools in the area.

Of the students at Frazier, 86.2 percent of students passed, 81.1 percent of students passed at McLaurin and 73.4 percent passed at West.

The 19 percent who failed would have to retest in May and, if they failed again, for a third time in July. The data from the May retest is currently unavailable.

The gravity of the tests was not lost on students or their teachers.

“They were very hurt for the children because the children understood, or understand, that they must pass this assessment to be promoted to the next grade,” Butler said. “So it was hurting to the teachers, especially those who have worked so hard, and that’s all of them.”

Butler said teachers worked with students who failed the test to help ensure their success, giving each student individual attention.

“The children are being remediated by highly effective teachers. The teachers are targeting those areas of deficits,” Butler said. “Those highly effective teachers are working with very small groups of students, and it’s a team of teachers who are selected based on their past performances.”

Teachers were chosen after administrators looked at their test data, the growth of their students, principal recommendations and individual teacher data.

Now, after all that work, students who failed the test and the first retest will take the assessment for the final time.

Butler said she hopes that all of the students would be able to pass. When the testing first began, Butler said she felt strongly that students would do well on the test.

“I feel just as strongly that the students will be successful on the retest,” Butler said.