NATCHEZ — Students, teachers and staff at three Natchez-Adams School District schools won’t hesitate to rally around the district’s motivational theme of “believe” this year — they’re already believers.

Their schools showed significant achievements in the recent state accountability results that propelled two schools out of the failing category — including one that went from an F to a C rating — and got one new school the highest rating in the district.

School leaders and teachers at the schools attribute those successes to various changes in the classrooms, but each say a common goal of change and improvement throughout the district is helping add fuel to the motivational fire.

West Elementary

Kenethia Doss never felt like she was alone in the fight to combat test scores for her fourth-grade math students last year.

A network of teachers, administrators and staff members created a support system the Natchez native said energized her to only accept the best from her students.

“We knew we were an F school, but none of us wanted that,” Doss said. “We had this motivation that spread throughout the whole building, and it made you feel like you weren’t in the ring boxing by yourself.”

That motivation came largely from Principal Alice Morrison, who was transferred to West from McLaurin Elementary School in 2013 in a district-wide personnel shift aimed at spreading administrators from high performing schools to those that needed improvement.

Shortly after arriving at West, Morrison said she began creating a sense of teamwork and togetherness throughout the entire building.

“I just started talking to teachers and told them the expectations I had for them and this school, but also listened to them and what they had to say or thought could improve,” Morrison said. “At the end of the day, we all agreed that we didn’t want to produce students who weren’t capable of success when we know we have students who are capable of that and so much more.

“So we got to work.”

One of the first changes made at the school, Morrison said, was a shift of teachers throughout grade level and subject areas.

Teachers who had proven experience with state testing were shifted into a grade level and subject that students are tested on annually, such as math, English language arts and science.

“What was happening was that you had teachers in those areas of testing who had not been there before or had no experience with the test,” Morrison said. “One of the most critical points of all this was just moving those teachers who were familiar with the state tests into those subject areas and making sure they had everything they needed to succeed.”

Doss was a teacher who didn’t need to be moved around, but one that Morrison said she relied on to lead a charge of math improvements throughout the entire grade and subject.

“She’s such a great researcher and really takes the time to understand each and every concept,” Morrison said. “She really pushed her students and others to perform well.”

That push helped last year’s math scores top the charts for the tested areas at the school.

The state’s new accountability system places a great emphasis on student growth, particularly for the lowest-performing students.

Those figures taken from the annual state tests are combined with other factors to give each school an A through F rating.

At West, 68 percent of students met certain growth targets in math, while 61 percent of students scored proficient and advanced in math.

For Morrison, who is known throughout the district for using student data to drive instruction, those numbers weren’t surprising.

“We monitored our progress all throughout the year and just let it drive our instruction in everything we did,” Morrison said. “I can honestly say that these students, teachers and staff invested long hours into these boys and girls because they believed in what they were doing and could see the results in the data.”

But the C rating is just the beginning for Morrison, who was quick to put strategies in place to make sure the areas that saw significant growth last year kept growing this year.

That’s why Doss moved up to fifth grade this year with the same students she taught last year in fourth grade.

The concept, known as “looping,” is not a district mandate, Morrison said, but one that each school administrator can implement if they believe it will be successful.

Doss believes the concept will pay off come test time.

“It’s an advantage for me, because I know their strengths and weaknesses from last year,” Doss said. “If I can target those weaknesses and play up their strengths, we’re going to do great things.”