Khaki pants and white or blue shirts take a lot of personality out of the Natchez-Adams School District’s students these days.

The uniform rules mean — to an outsider — nearly every student at a given school looks like his or her neighbor.

But spend a few minutes in the classroom and you’ll find personality.

Large, white, triangle-shaped earrings, hair ribbons and designer sneakers make each bleak uniform stand out from the others.

Backpacks, colorful notebooks and even pencils can begin to tell you a bit about their owners.

Add a few more minutes of observation and it’s easy to pick the good students from the, well, not so good. You’ll see who wants to learn but just can’t keep up and who knows the answers without even studying.

Then, despite the fact that they may all look the same, you’ll realize that each student is an individual not easily lumped into a category by test score or academic label.

And the only way to move a school from one category of labels to the next is individually.

All the local schools know this and have implemented systems to improve test scores accordingly.

Something Robert Lewis Middle School did last year worked.

The eighth-graders at the school last spring did so well on the Mississippi Curriculum Test that the percentage scoring proficient or above jumped up 31 points in math and 9 points in language arts.

It’s difficult for teachers and administrators to point to exactly what worked so well, but some credit is surely due.

In addition to extra tutoring through groups such as the Boys & Girls Club and a year-round focus on the test, RLMS has pulled students who score low on the MCT into a separate class period focused on remediation.

These students attend regular classes all day long, but simply have one class period set aside for compensatory math and language arts.

Starting this year the students who scored low only in math attend just the extra math class or vice versa for language arts. Last year, low scores meant students attended one class that focused both on math and on language arts.

For compensatory math teacher Veronica Ellery the change sometimes means very small class sizes and time for extra attention.

Ellery’s largest class has 15 students, her smallest has four. All of her eighth-grade students also take pre-algebra — the regular math for eighth graders. But they come to her for one class period a day to focus on the basics.

Ellery teaches, reviews and drills everything from the multiplication tables to the algebraic lessons, and if a student needs to slow the lesson down, Ellery can.

The compensatory math students work through sample test questions, learning not only the math skills needed to answer the questions, but tips for taking tests that force them to use critical thinking, not just rote memorization.

Ellery’s smaller classes mean she has the chance to teach the individual, not the class.

When the individuals improve, the group does, too. The group improved at RLMS last year, and obviously so did the individuals. Those students are now ninth-graders at Natchez High, and it will be another year before we see just how far their success carries.

In the meantime, it’s apparent that something went very right last year at RLMS, a school with a rocky reputation and a tough age group to manage.

And that deserves a round of applause from those of us not wearing uniform khaki pants and white or blue shirts.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.