NATCHEZ — Natchez-Adams School District students were tested in 18 categories last spring; students performed better than the year before in nine of those categories and worse in the remaining nine categories.

Scores from the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2, Subject Area Testing Program and fifth- and eighth-grade science tests were released today to the public.

Superintendent Frederick Hill said he was proud of the progress made.

“NASD is headed in the right direction,” Hill said. “Even though we have a long way to go, NASD is in a much better position that it has been in for at least the last six years.”

Students across the district scored higher on spring 2014 tests than students in the same grades and subject areas did in the spring of 2013 in the following categories:

• Third-grade math

• Fourth-grade language arts and math

• Fifth-grade math and science

• Sixth-grade language arts and math

• Eighth-grade language arts and science

Sixth-grade students across the district showed the most significant improvement in test scores compared to the scores of the previous year’s sixth graders.

In sixth grade, 76 percent of students scored basic or above in math, which is up 11.5 percentage points from the 2013 scores. Those students also scored 8.1 percentage points higher in language arts.

The significant increase from the sixth-grade class is partially attributed to the creation of the Robert Lewis Magnet School. Students at that school scored significant higher than those at Morgantown Middle School.

The magnet school opened last year, on the campus of the former Robert Lewis Middle School, to sixth-grade students with an emphasis on science, technology, math and engineering curriculum.

The school offered more personalized instruction with only 125 students admitted to the school and was the model for a district restructuring this year.

“Of course the magnet school scores are part of the results, but it is not theirs alone,” Hill said. “Both Robert Lewis and Morgantown made significant growth.

“Both schools are just as responsible as the others for the growth identified in the sixth grade.”

Fourth-grade students in the district also showed improvement with 88.7 percent of students scoring basic and above on the math test, which is 5.3 percentage points higher.

The majority of the fourth-grade students who scored higher on those tests attended West and Frazier elementary schools.

Fourth-grade students at West scored 11 percentage points higher on the math portion of the test than last year’s students, while students at Frazier scored 7 percentage points higher.

Frazier Principal Tony Fields said he attributed the increase in scores to a school-wide motivational effort.

“The students, teachers and everybody just bought into what we wanted to do, and we’re finally able to show some of those results,” Fields said. “We set goals for ourselves really across the board at the beginning of the year, and we made sure to review all the data possible to make sure we met or exceeded those goals.”

Students across the district scored lower in the following categories:

• Third-grade language arts

• Fifth-grade language arts

• Seventh grade language arts and math

• Eighth-grade math

• 10th grade algebra I, biology, English II and U.S. History.