By Rita Howell and Jason Mattox

Students at South Panola High School surpassed their peers across the state in the percentage of those passing in all four subject area tests administered last spring, according to results released on Friday by the Mississippi State Department of Education.

Results of the Subject Area Testing Program for high school students and the Mississippi Curriculum Test, 2nd Edition (MCT-2), administered to students in grades 3-8, were released last week. The MCT-2 tested students in language arts and math.

Test scores are one component in the ranking that will be assigned by the state to schools in September. Labels are, from highest to lowest: Star School, High Performing, Successful, Academic Watch, Low Performing, At Risk of Failing and Failing.

In the South Panola School District, Superintendent Dr. Keith Shaffer is awaiting the September 2 release of  the state’s accountability reports and school designations.

“I’m looking for growth and improvement in all areas,” Shaffer said.

The scores released last week don’t tell the whole story, he said.

SPHS scores

In the Biology I test, 95.1 percent of South Panola students passed, an 8.9 percent increase over the statewide average.

In the Algebra test, 86.2 percent of SPHS students passed, 6.6 percent over the state average.

South Panola students passing the English II test totaled 74.3 percent, beating the state average by 6.3 percent. In the U.S. History test, 93.5 percent of SP students passed, surpassing the state average by .5 percent.

MCT-2

In general, students in both the South Panola and North Panola school districts had higher percentages of failing or barely passing students than the state average. And they had lower percentages of students performing in the proficient or advanced levels than the state average.

 On average, the percentages of South Panola third through eight graders scoring “proficient” (demonstrating solid academic performance) on their MCT-2 tests were five percent less than their peers across the state. The exception was the current ninth grade class, with 50 percent of its members scoring “proficient” on the math portion of the MCT-2 last year. Across the state, 46.5 percent of last year’s eighth graders scored “proficient” in that category.

In the North Panola district, totals of students scoring “proficient” on the MCT-2 were on average 14 percent lower than the state average.

North Panola scores show that the tested fourth graders were the farthest from state averages. Of NP fourth graders, 17.9 scored “proficient” on their MCT-2 Language Arts test. That total is 21.5 percent fewer than the state average. (Just over 39 percent of Mississippi fourth graders scored proficient.) Only 24.5 percent of North Panola’s fourth graders tested at the proficient level on the math portion of the test where the state average is 49.4 percent scoring proficient.

North Panola Conservator Dr. Oscar Love said that overall he is pleased with the results, but admitted he had not had time to fully examine the results since they were released.

In an effort to show more improvement next year, Love said he is going to evaluate the entire district from facility improvements to staffing.

“The people here are going to have to know that this is not going to be a one year turn around,” he said. “This is going to take some time.”