MONTICELLO — Lawrence County School District gains in theMississippi Curriculum Test exceeded state average gains in five ofthe seven grades tested.

Superintendent John Bull said the district was “very pleased”with the MCT results, but added the report also pointed to a fewareas that needed some improvement.

“We certainly can celebrate the improvements, but we’re far frombeing satisfied,” he said.

The MCT tests students in grades 2-8 in three subject areas –Reading, Language and Mathematics.

Test results show a statewide drop in seventh grade performanceand, unfortunately, this was also reflected in Lawrence Countyschools, Bull said.

It is a statewide problem, according to Dr. Sharon Dungan, TitleI and federal programs director, and one the district, as well asthe state, is analyzing to discover the source.

Dungan said she suspected they would find several factors as theunderlying cause, but that one may be the change in the waychildren are taught, which changes from sixth to seventh grade.

“There’s a big transition there as teachers begin to put moreemphasis on content and details,” she said.

The seventh grade level is also the first where students go frombeing in one home room all day to one period classes, she said.

Third grade test levels in the district also dropped slightly,but remained above the state average in Language and Math and justbelow the state in Reading.

Although the third grade drop is a subject of concern, officialsare more concerned about the seventh grade, which is well below thestate average in Reading and Language.

“We have a lot more concern at the seventh grade level (than thethird),” Dungan said. “We will be spending more time there to seewhat we can do to better align our curriculum there.”

Overall, however, the district performed extremely well on thetests, Dungan said.

“We are just tickled to have made better gains than the stateaverage in five of the seven grades,” she said.

Bull and Dungan credit the implementation of the Program forEffective Teaching for the gains.

“This program is where we really emphasize effective, efficientand relevant instruction,” Dungan said. “I just really think itmade a difference.”

Part of the program concentrated on curriculum alignment, Dungansaid. The program aligned the written curriculum, what teachersactually teach and what gets tested into one well-meshed unit. Asupervision model also helps draw the three elements closertogether.

At the district level, the scores are also broken down intoindividual classes and students to provide teachers with aninvaluable aid in determining what they need to emphasize and inwhat areas each student needs the most work, Dungan said.

Each student’s scores are provided to the teacher who taught theclass “so they can see the holes in their curriculum” and to theteacher who will teach the student in the next year “so they cansee each child’s strengths and weaknesses,” Dungan said.

In an effort to work on weaknesses, Dungan said the after schooland target programs are also geared to the individual scores.

MCT results will soon be used to gauge teacher effectiveness,Bull said. Teachers must show student improvement on the tests.

“Accountability now goes beyond the superintendent andadministration,” he said. “Now it includes teachers and thestudents themselves. Everyone is accountable.”

A random selection of test items from grade to grade and year toyear is used so the difficulty level of the tests should beconsistent, but occasional blips of good or ill fortune canoccur.

Dungan said, for that reason, one year’s results cannot be thebasis for a determination, but a trend of two or three years canshow where a program in really working or where it needs to bereevaluated.