With state scores flat, see how Coast kids scored on 2019 kindergarten-readiness test

The number of children who met the state’s kindergarten-readiness benchmark after fall testing is 36% for the fifth year in a row.

Children are tested in the fall and spring to show progress. Last week, the Mississippi Department of Education released results of the fall 2019 tests.

A score of 530 is the fall-testing benchmark that studies show is a good predictor that children are on track to be proficient readers by the end of third grade. A score of 681 is the spring-testing benchmark.

“Students with a score below 530 usually need additional help,” the education department has said in its results.

The average fall score has remained flat, between 501 and 503, since 2014. It improved to 680 in 2014 then to over 700 every year after that.

There are four levels of reading proficiency based on the scores. No district has ever scored in the top two levels in the fall, and the number of districts to reach the 530 benchmark has fallen the past two years after peaking at 20 in 2017.

The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment evaluates early literacy skills such as the ability to recognize letters and match letters to their sounds and a student’s recognition that print flows from left to right, MDE said in a press release.

“High-quality early childhood education prepares children for success in kindergarten and has a positive impact on academic achievement throughout a child’s education,” state Superintendent Carey Wright said in the press release.

Early-childhood education has been a priority for Gov. Phil Bryant since he was elected in 2012, and the state passed the Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013.

The law created a model for state-funded pre-K education, and 11 communities were chosen for the first round of Early Learning Collaboratives. Picayune was one of the South Mississippi communities, and in 2018 George County was added.

To keep getting funding, the Collaboratives must have an average score of 498 by the spring, which puts the pre-kindergarteners on track to score a 530 in kindergarten.

The average fall score for the Collaboratives has hovered between 425 and 430 since 2015, growing to between 528 and 585 in the spring.

For other pre-K classrooms, the fall average has declined since 2015. It was 426 in 2015, falling to 424, then 420 two years, and dropped to 418 in 2019. But the spring average improved to 559 last year after hovering around 550 for three years.

Coast scores

On the Coast, no school districts scored at or above the 530 benchmark in fall 2019, and the closest district to do so was Petal near Hattiesburg.

A few individual schools scored above 530: North Bay Elementary in Biloxi; Bayou View Elementary in Gulfport; North Woolmarket, Pineville and West Wortham elementary schools in Harrison County; and Beach Elementary in Pascagoula.

For Early Learning Collaboratives, the average 2019 fall score was 425. Picayune School District scored a 420 and George County Early Learning Collaborative scored at 427.

For other pre-K classrooms of 4-year-olds, the state average was 418. Pass Christian School District scored the highest on the Coast with a 470, followed by Biloxi School District’s 427. Pascagoula-Gautier School District had the lowest with 401.

This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 5:00 AM.

Lauren Walck

Sun Herald

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Senior news editor. Mobile native. Louisiana State University grad. At Sun Herald since 2011 after working at Gannett. Support my work with a digital subscription