Nearly 78 percent of DeSoto County third-graders met Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA) requirements while just over 22 percent of district third graders did not pass on the first go-around, according to a report released Thursday from the Mississippi Department of Education.
The requirements are what determines whether a third-grader has reached a reading proficiency that will allow the student to be promoted into fourth grade.
The LBPA became law in 2013 to improve reading skills of kindergarten through third-grade students in public schools so every student completing the third grade is able to read at or above grade level.
The LBPA requires Mississippi third graders to pass a reading assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. An amendment to the law in 2016 raised reading-level expectations starting in the 2018-19 school year, requiring third graders to score at level 3 or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment.
Third graders who do not pass the initial administration of the reading test are given up to two attempts to retest.
Those students who did not pass the reading assessment on their first attempt last month were retested May 9-13. The second retest window is June 20 – July 8. Some students may qualify for good cause exemptions to be promoted to fourth grade.
Of DCS schools tested, Lewisburg Elementary was best on the list at 91.5 percent. Hernando Hills Elementary was second among district schools at 88.9 percent and Center Hill Elementary was third with 86.2 percent.
Following is the entire breakdown from MDE on DeSoto County Schools with the first listed figure: the percentage of students that met LBPA requirements.
Courtesy MDE
The last time Mississippi third graders took the assessment in a normal school year was April 2019 when 74.5 percent of 34,998 students passed the initial test.
Final district-level pass rates will be published this fall in the Literacy-Based Promotion Act Annual Report of Performance and Student Retention for the 2021-22 school year.
