Significant gains in the lower elementary grades and some highschool subjects makes administrators in the Brookhaven SchoolDistrict believe they are on the right track in educating thecity’s youth.

“We’re encouraged by the scores in the lower elementary. Weshowed significant improvement there, especially at Mamie Martin(Elementary School),” said Assistant Superintendent JamesTillman.

“They’re higher there than we’ve ever seen,” Superintendent LeaBarrett added. “We’ve always had strong elementary schools. I thinkthat helps us and I believe it will ultimately help our drop outrate at the high school.”

What’s particularly notable about those scores, Tillman said, isthat it means that the youngest students in the system are learningmore depth of knowledge at an increased pace and it’s a trend thedistrict has noticed in previous years.

“We’re seeing that carried forward to Brookhaven Elementary,where the scores are also climbing,” he said.

Barrett said scores in high school biology and algebra alsoshowed marked improvement.

“I was also particularly impressed by the biology and algebrascores at the high school,” she said.

Overall, Barrett said she was pleased with the results of thestate testing. Scores in most grades showed improvement, but therewere a few areas of the test that displayed a “slight decline” whencompared with state averages.

However, she said, when the scores are compared with those ofthe same students in the prior year’s Mississippi Curriculum Test(MCT) test, the results are much more positive and reveal growth inall areas of the tested material.

“That’s really what you’re looking for,” Barrett said. “If youcan achieve growth at the individual level than the district scoreswill follow.”

Test scores in a district can increase, but if they do notincrease at the same pace or faster than those of the state theywill show as a decline, she said.

The MCT tests every student in grades two through eight inreading, language arts and mathematics skills. Besides providingeducators and the public with a glimpse at how their schoolscompare with others in the state, the scores are used as part of aformula to tabulate Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), a key elementin the No Child Left Behind Act.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, all students are evaluatedand placed within four major categories that determine theirproficiency – minimal, basic, proficient and advanced. Alldistricts must move their students from the minimal and basiccategories to the proficient or advanced levels by 2014 or facefederal sanctions.

The district showed good growth in moving students along the AYPpath, Barrett said, but there was some slippage in mean scalescores in some areas, particularly math in grades four, five, sevenand eight and in some high school subjects.

Although students can pass the grade or graduate with a scorethat places them in the minimal category of AYP, the district needsthe students to take the tests seriously and do their best, shesaid.

“We need to do a better job of motivating a child to get theirbest score,” Barrett said. “The Subject Area Test doesn’t carry thesame stature among them (as the ACT) and we need to stress itsimportance. Our ACT scores continue to be higher than the (state)average and the percentage of our students taking them continues togrow.”

The district’s composite ACT score this period was 19.1, whichwas above the state average of 18.9.

“That’s down a little from last year, but it’s still a good,solid score,” she said. “It’s our fourth consecutive year toaverage above the state mean.”

One issue reflected in 2005-2006 MCT scores that may have had anegative impact statewide on scores was the inclusion of specialneeds students to the testing process, Barrett said. Schools wererequired to test their special needs students, those with alearning disability, at their appropriate grade level rather thantheir instructional level. Only those designated as severelydisabled, such as autistic children, were exempted.

In Brookhaven, the requirement meant that out of 299 studentsclassified as disabled, only 27 were not tested, said MarshaWoodard, curriculum director.

“I do think that had some impact on our test scores, but I’mvery pleased we were able to do that,” Barrett said.

Barrett noted that the results reported Friday for BrookhavenSchool District were not 100 percent accurate because the testingcompany had “misdirected” 480 of the district’s test scores.However, she could not say how those scores would have affected theannounced results.