The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) today announced 84% of third graders passed the third-grade reading assessment after the final retest for 2023-24. Though the pass rate is slightly lower than 2022-23 (84.9%), third graders achieved an all-time high proficiency of 57.7% in English Language Arts (ELA) for the 2023-24 school year. The increased ELA proficiency rate marks a continuous upward trend since 2016 (33.6%).
Mississippi's Literacy-Based Promotion Act requires third graders to achieve a passing score of Level 3 or higher on the reading portion of the state's ELA assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. The assessment has five levels. Students who score at Level 4 are considered proficient; Level 5 is advanced.
The Literacy-Based Promotion Act enacted in 2013 was created to help ensure kindergarten through third-grade students develop good reading skills. The law was amended in 2016 to raise the passing score on the third-grade reading test starting in the 2018-19 school year.
Though not a steep decline, the 2024 final pass rate is lower than the final pass rates in 2023 (84.9%), 2022 (85%) and 2019 (85.6%). Due to the pandemic, there was no testing in 2020, and the passing requirement was waived in 2021. Three main areas MDE will offer support to schools and districts are as follows:
Encourage and assist with the adoption of High-Quality Instructional Materials
Continue to increase the number of school and district level staff trained in the Science of Reading
Collaborate with Educational Preparation Programs to include Science of Reading training for pre-service teachers
Final district-level pass rates are published in the Literacy-Based Promotion Act Annual Report of Performance and Student Retention for the 2023-24 school year. Students are provided with three attempts to pass the test. Students who do not pass the test after the final attempt are retained in third grade unless they qualify for one of the good cause exemptions for certain students with disabilities, students learning English or students who have been previously retained. Local school districts determine which students who did not pass qualify for an exemption for promotion to fourth grade. Districts also consider their local promotion and retention policies for making determinations.
The LBPA takes a comprehensive approach to building the capacity of teachers and school leaders to effectively teach reading and implement an ongoing system to monitor student progress. The law enables the MDE to deploy literacy coaches to schools where data show students struggle the most with reading. Coaches work directly with teachers and administrators to help them become more effective teachers of reading. In addition, the MDE provides professional development related to teaching reading to teachers, school administrators and faculty in teacher preparation programs.
Families can visit strongreadersms.com for resources to help children build reading skills at home.
Find all MDE news releases at mdek12.org/news.
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