Jefferson Middle School and first-year principal Levi Robinson are working diligently to improve the school’s D rating and spent $50,000 on an outside firm to improve test scores, according to an update he gave the school board April 11.
Working with a $60,000 budget, the middle school hired a daily consulting firm to work with the teachers and students. It also allocated resources to a reading program and to Larry Bell to tutor teachers. Robinson said the majority of the students don’t read on their grade level, which he called a problem.
The school has been taking practice tests all year and tracking its progress, which has been minimal, but Robinson said some of the lack of growth can be attributed to lack of motivation among students.
“Some (teachers) talk about the students not being motivated or taking the tests seriously. That’s been a real big factor we’ve tried to address,” he said.
Jefferson Middle School began a two-week boot camp overseen by the consulting firm Tuesday where students were broken down into small groups with fellow classmates who scored similarly in particular subjects to hone in on common needs.
“The good news is we’re working very, very hard,” Robinson said. “The teachers have bought into what we’re doing, and we are starting to see some results. I won’t lie; it’s not totally what we want, but we are heading in the right direction.”
Robinson said the biggest emphasis is on reading and the students who scored in the bottom 25 percent. Teachers are also staying after school to tutor students beyond what can be done during the normal school day.
Robinson added that there is a group of teachers in place that meet twice a month to discuss ways to improve test scores, and the administrative staff is constantly evaluating teachers as well.
“I really believe that in the next two weeks with the tutoring we’ll be doing as well as what the teachers are doing in the classroom, we’re going to have a chance to reach our goal to not be a D next year,” he said. “We want to at least be a C. Ultimately we want to be a B going into an A, but we have to take small steps.”
In other action during the meeting, the board approved an access controls project change order that will save the district $7,000, with files now being stored on the cloud, a remote server accessible via the internet. It also approved a $1,500 pay raise for teachers that was signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant Tuesday.
Pictured Above: Jefferson Middle School Principal Levi Robinson discussess efforts to improve student reading and other areas during a presentation to the Columbia school board on April 11 at Columbia High School. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
