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The CHALKBOARD
CLINTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Making the grade.
Students in Clinton’s public schools are making
the grade on state mandated testing.
“There were gains across the board, at every
school,” said Dr. Tim Martin, superintendent of
schools. “We made gains overall as a district.”
The Mississippi Department of Education
released the raw scores this summer, and will
release school and district accountability letter
grade ratings later this fall.
Clinton Public School District scores show
staggering increases in fourth-grade English
Language Arts, growing from 48.8 percent
proficiency last year to 78.2 percent this year.
Fourth-graders also jumped from 67.9 percent proficiency
in math last year to 83 percent this year.
Another significant number is student growth,
which measures whether students show a year’s
worth of learning for a year’s worth of teaching. In
fourth grade, students showed 107 percent growth
overall in math, with the bottom 25 percent of
students showing 89 percent. “Our fourth-grade
teachers did an outstanding job,” Martin said.
In sixth grade, math proficiency jumped from
55.7 percent to 73.2 percent.
Algebra I showed the greatest growth for the
bottom 25 percent of students. The overall growth
for Algebra I was 88.9 and the bottom 25 percent
showed 98.4 percent growth. This means that
nearly all students who were significantly behind
their peers at the start of the school year had
caught up at the end of the year.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment and
speaks well of our Algebra I teachers and students,”
Martin said.
At the high school level, scores are relatively flat
on the Advanced Placement tests, but more
students overall are taking these tests. In 2014, 94
Clinton High School students took Advanced
Placement tests; this year 118 students did.
“The (Institutions of Higher Learning) recently
announced that if students score three or higher on
an Advanced Placement test, any of the major
universities in Mississippi will give them credit for
that course,” said Dr. Brock Ratcliff, assistant
principal at CHS. “This saves students money and
helps them get an early start on their college
coursework. We’re encouraging more of our high
school students to take the Advanced Placement
tests and reap the benefits.”
Career and Technical Education students also
excelled. At the CHS Career Complex, six programs
ranked in the top 4 statewide: Automotive
Technology (I and II), Culinary Arts, Teacher
Academy, and Law & Public Safety (I and II). CHS
had an 87 percent pass rate for the 366 students
participating in technical certification courses.
“I’m extremely proud of our students and
teachers,” Martin said. “We are pleased with the
scores, but it also shows us the areas that we need
to improve. We will use this data during the 2018-19
school year and continue to hold high expectations
for all students.”
68 • September 2018