Coahoma Early College High School’s first benchmark exam results of the year are in.
Principal Cloretha Jamison discussed a breakdown of the different subjects during the CECHS and Coahoma Community College board meeting Monday morning.
Jamison said college teachers are instructing students in U.S. History and the goal was to have a score of 650 or above.
None of the grades reached that mark, but Jamison was confident they were headed in the right direction.
“You can see we don’t have a class right now who is scoring that,” she said. “Right now, we’re along the basic lines. We need to move to proficiency in order for the school to gain points that we need.”
Jamison said there are new standards for Biology I, but she also felt the students were closer to reaching their goals.
“Right now, we’re at the basic,” she said. “We’re moving to proficiency. This is the first benchmark exam.”
Jamison said a score of 640 in U.S. History and biology is basic. A score of 650 and above would be considered proficient in both subjects.
For English II benchmark exams, Jamison said she is looking for a score of 1050 or higher.
“Her (English teacher) class is already scoring that. That’s a good sign of what they’re going to do in the spring because English II is repetitious throughout the entire school year.”
In Algebra I, Jamison said a consultant is assisting the teacher. She noted new methods have been implemented to help students, including a calculator on an android phone and homework through email.
“She’s (teacher) contacting all of the parents to let them know what’s needed to be successful in Algebra I,” Jamison said.
Jamison said all Algebra I scores should be at least 1050. At the moment, she said one class is there, but the the other three should eventually improve to get to that point.
“These are skills that will change throughout the nine weeks,” Jamison said.
Jamison said 70 percent of freshmen scored below level when it came to math.
“She really has her job cut out for her, but she’s really working, trying to increase those scores,” she said.
A 1050 is needed to pass the test in Algebra and Emglish.
Jamison said scores did increase in all subjects from the spring.
“That’s a good sign of saying we’re moving, but we do have to take into account that every nine weeks, except for English II, we have to move to new standards,” she said. “That means they cannot lose what they gained. We have to tie in what they’ve already mastered into what they’re learning.”
Jamison said teachers are each setting their own goals.
“I’m also using it as part of their evaulation to see how close they’re coming to the goals,” she said.
Jamison said some teachers have already met their goals.
Goals to improve the school go beyond the benchmark exam for Jamison.
“I want to say we are still moving with our schoolwide goals from the previous meetings we’ve been having with a newly added one focusing on the social and emotional sake of students,” she said.
Jamison has noticed behavioral problems with the students and is attempting to tackle the issue immediately.
“We have an issue with some of the younger fellows in our school who like to put their hands on our young ladies,” she said. “We have to stop that before it becomes an issue, so we’re going to take a proactive approach with our males that are on staff, also with our SRO officers, to speak with our young men this week.”
The female teachers and administrators are also involved in the process.
“Our role as ladies is to speak with our young ladies and let them know what we need to do to solve this altogether,” she said. “We know we can’t stop everything from occurring, but it is an issue. We don’t want it to become a problem. That is our new focus.”
Jamison said teachers have attended a student-centered project called Reading for Learning.
“It’s part of our early college model where they teach for reading and understanding,” she said.
She said the program allows children to discover, learn and talk with each other
Jamison also said there are reading conferences for teachers in Biloxi this month.
“That should give them some necessary sources and resources and skills to go along with what they’ve been doing in the classroom,” she said.
Jamison specifically said it will benefit English I, II and III teachers.
Jamsion said she and another teacher were a part of early college training on Nov. 1. The state department helped conduct that.
“Very needed. The reason why is because when all of us come together, we tend to bounce ideas off one another,” she said. “We tend to talk about what is working, what is not working, what we need to improve upon, what we need to anticipate.”
Jamison said a teacher also recentlt came back from a counseling conference in Biloxi.
