Students in the Mexico Public School District (MPS) and across the state are falling behind and educators have identified a couple of factors that may be contributing.

The state recently released standardized testing results for the district and the numbers were as expected with students from Mexico for the most part lagging behind state averages. However, local officials don’t believe those test numbers tell the whole story.

MPS Superintendent Melissa Chastain said the district uses its own assessment tool called iReady that is given to students at least three times a year and in some cases more often. Chastain admitted she’s not a fan of standardized tests but also acknowledged their importance. However, she said the state’s test tells little of the story.

“Those (iReady) tests show immediate growth which is what informs teachers and practices in the classroom,” Chastain told school board members at a meeting on Dec. 19, 2023. “With these big state tests you may have a student who makes a year and a half growth or two years if you find the right intervention it’s not going to show on this. This is a big snapshot and a big picture but everything teachers do in the classroom every day they know exactly where their kids are.”

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Robert Miles said they’ve formed a task force to help answer some of the questions and fill in the gaps when it comes to student achievement. Miles said there isn’t one contributing factor he can put his finger on. He said it would be good to take multiple views.

“I can sit here and ponder but there’s so many different factors that are in play for our kids,” Miles said.

Some factors cannot be ignored and poverty is one of them. Chastain said the district isn’t making excuses but the numbers are what they are.

“There is a direct correlation to state testing and free and reduced lunch and we’re sitting at 77 percent free and reduced and that’s not an excuse it’s just facts,” Chastain said. “That cannot become an excuse because all our students deserve success.”

The other giant in the room is attendance rates and accountability. Mexico High School Assistant Principal Mike Fernandez said 40 percent of missed school days come without an explanation or excuse. He said the goal is to get up to 90 percent of kids attending 90 percent of class days. 

Fernandez said the school has a group of kids who are habitually late to school and they’ve started to address it by sending letters home to parents to try and improve communication.

“Sometimes there’s a perfectly legitimate reason or there’s an illness,” Fernandez said. “That’s why it’s good to let us know.”

Fernandez said they’re also asking questions which can lead to some solutions. For example, one student had trouble getting to school so they set up a bus stop for him.

“We’re not just there to give kids lunch detentions,” Fernandez said. “It’s not perfect but he’s here on time a lot more than he used to be.”

“We’ve got to have kids at school,” Chastain added. “They can’t learn if they’re not here. Parents want their kids to be at school too. How can we support parents in getting their kids here?”

High School Principal Brad Ellebracht told BOE members he and his staff have met several times about these issues and realize they have to do something different.

“The kids today just have different demands, different requirements than what they did even not too long ago and we have to change and we have to grow with them,” Ellebracht said. “We are constantly in a state of growth but we’re also at the same time looking at some pretty fundamental changes in the way we approach business.”

Ellebracht said they are doing things differently but educators will need time to turn it around.

“I don’t expect anything that we’re doing right now to have the turnaround in a matter of a year,” Ellebracht said. “It’s going to take time. It’s a lot of building and bringing people on board and making sure teachers are prepared to deliberate. We’re all bought in and working on that.”

BOE President Keith Louder, a teacher, agreed with Ellebracht’s thoughts.

“To have a plan and a purpose and then to consistently implement that over years, two or three years, and then scrapping and starting something new is critical,” Louder said. “If you want to see long-term growth and long-term change some of that takes a while. Every time you change a program there’s an implementation that happens. You have to stay consistent with that program.

Chastain said she believes the district has an advantage over other districts in the state and he coaches basketball for the Los Angeles Clippers. Chastain said Coach Tyronn Lue’s C2C program will give them several legs up.

“That’s going to make a difference with these test scores,” Chastain said. “We have a lot of great things happening so we can’t let a test score get us down. We need to focus on the growth we’re seeing in the classroom every day and we need to celebrate it.”