Just over half of the third graders in Jackson Public Schools are reading on grade level, according to test results released last week by the Mississippi Department of Education.
At some elementary schools in north and central Jackson, nearly all the students passed the third-grade reading test on the first try. But the results show that a majority of third graders at schools in south Jackson failed the test, raising the possibility that those students will be retained this fall. They have multiple chances to test again before that happens.
Students at Barack H. Obama Elementary and McWillie Elementary had the highest scores, with more than 95% passing, while students at Key Elementary, Shirley Elementary and Wilkins Elementary had the lowest, with less than 40% of students passing at those three schools.
There are likely many reasons for this disparity, but local educators say the low reading scores reflect that it can be hard to be a kid in south Jackson right now.
Learning to read is all the more challenging for kids whose basic needs are not being met.
“The less resources you have at home, the heavier that burden is going to be,” said Pam Franklin, the program director at Operation Shoestring.
The nonprofit is one of several groups in the city that are working to get Jackson’s third graders reading at the level they were just 10 years ago, when nearly 85% of the city’s public schoolers passed the third grade reading test.
But without nutritional meals, clean clothes, playtime, sleep and a supportive parent who reads to them, kids will struggle to be friendly with their peers or respectful to teachers, let alone concentrate on vocabulary or phonics.
“Before I walk in the door, I’m bringing all of that with me,” Franklin said.
These challenges exacerbate the urgency educators face in teaching them to read by the end of third grade. It’s not just because students must, with some exceptions, pass the third-grade reading test to advance to the fourth grade. The failure to learn to read by this age has been linked to poor outcomes later in life, such as dropping out of school, earning low wages or delinquency.
That’s partly because knowing how to read is a crucial life skill, said Greer Proctor-Dickson, the executive director of the Mississippi Reading Clinic.
“We’re not conscious of all the reading that we do,” Proctor-Dickson said. “Street signs, bills, legal documents, menus.”
For instance, students need to learn how to read in order to solve math problems that are posed in paragraph form.
“Now I’m getting a double strike,” Franklin said.
As Jackson loses population, fewer families are sending their children to JPS, leaving the district with less funding.
Ironically, that’s exactly what educators say Jackson’s kids need: More resources and more support.
During the school year, the Mississippi Reading Clinic hosts classes at local middle schools to work with students with poor reading skills.
Proctor-Dickson recalled a story of a JPS teacher the clinic was coaching who noticed that something was off with a boy in her class. When she asked him what was wrong, he said he was long overdue for a haircut and embarrassed to be seen in public.
So the teacher called a barber who volunteered to come to the school and cut the boy’s hair that day.
“It was like a 180 shift,” Proctor-Dickson said.
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