{"id":4201,"date":"2026-07-22T05:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T05:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4201"},"modified":"2026-07-22T05:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T05:03:15","slug":"mississippi-state-testing-reading-comprehension-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4201","title":{"rendered":"Stop Saying Kids Can\u2019t Read"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s three weeks<\/span> until Mississippi\u2019s standardized test season<\/a> begins, and Candace Hamberlin is feeling the pressure.<\/p>\n

Evidence of what\u2019s at stake hangs all around Jefferson County Middle School, where Hamberlin is in her first year teaching eighth-grade English. Inside her classroom, a large piece of black polyester with clear pouches labeled \u201cData Wall\u201d shows the current reading level of each student. The school hallways are lined with posters listing schoolwide scores on an earlier practice test. One prominently displays the grade Mississippi would assign their school if that practice test had been the real thing: 175 out of 700 points, an F.<\/p>\n

Jefferson County is one of the smallest in Mississippi; 6,800 people spread across 527 square miles along the Mississippi River. It\u2019s also one of the poorest, with 32 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Fayette, where the only public elementary, middle, and high school are all based, is the only city in the county, home to about a dozen churches but not a single stoplight. The county is 13 percent white, but most of those families send their kids to private or parochial schools; 98 percent of the school district\u2019s students are Black.<\/p>\n

Inside Hamberlin\u2019s classroom, it\u2019s time for test-prep drills. This period has 20 eighth graders enrolled, but only 10 are present; six have been pulled out for remedial work with a consultant the district has hired to boost test scores, and the remaining four are absent for unclear reasons. The students in the room each grab a Chromebook<\/a> and log in, at speeds ranging from feet-dragging to actively resistant. They open the StudySync software program, which shows them each a series of questions tailored to their weaknesses. Their faces look like they\u2019re being marched to the guillotine.<\/p>\n

Much of literacy instruction at Jefferson County Middle School now begins and ends with screens. In fact, Hamberlin doesn\u2019t lecture at all on Wednesdays and Thursdays; students spend those class periods with StudySync and i-Ready, another adaptive software program, so each can focus where they need the most help.<\/p>\n

Their teacher can\u2019t blame them for being sick of these exercises. The students\u2019 lives, and hers, are dominated by the looming Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP), the set of annual standardized exams that measure their progress in language arts as well as science and math. Test prep is a year-round activity. Her students must learn how to decode the meaning of unfamiliar words, make inferences, identify the central idea of a passage, analyze tone and point of view. Every Friday brings a practice test.<\/p>\n

Before moving to eighth grade, Hamberlin logged 25 years as an elementary school teacher. Eighth grade appealed to her because it\u2019s all about analyzing<\/em> texts, not just consuming them. That\u2019s her idea of a good time. She remembers reading the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book four times just to make sure she didn\u2019t miss a single detail. As she talks a group of students through a reading passage by Sojourner Truth, her passion is palpable\u2014for the material, but even more for the puzzle-solving that reading comprehension requires.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them think they\u2019re studying the story,\u201d she says afterward. \u201cYou\u2019re not studying the story, that\u2019s just the sprinkles on top. It\u2019s what was she thinking, why did she say it, how did she convey her message?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Candace<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Candace Hamberlin, an eighth-grade English teacher at Jefferson County Middle School.<\/p>\n

<\/span>PHOTOGRAPH: CAMILLE FARRAH LENAIN<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s three weeks until Mississippi\u2019s standardized test season begins, and Candace Hamberlin is feeling the pressure. Evidence of what\u2019s at stake hangs all around Jefferson County Middle School, where Hamberlin is in her first year teaching eighth-grade English. Inside her classroom, a large piece of black polyester with clear pouches labeled \u201cData Wall\u201d shows the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[578,1008,396,975,579],"class_list":["post-4201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-education","tag-kids-these-days","tag-longreads","tag-reading","tag-schools"],"yoast_head":"\nStop Saying Kids Can\u2019t Read - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everyone is talking about the reading crisis. 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