WINONA - Administrators and teachers at Winona Elementary School are busy preparing for May's Mississippi Curriculum Test, 2nd edition (MCT2). Following last year's success in scoring as a High Performing school, the school is working to repeat that success.

Last year, Winona Elementary School scored 172 of 300 on the new ranking model. The state average was 149. The school and the entire Winona Separate School district was given High Performing status, next the highest ranking in the state.

However, this year's test will be even more rigorous and gradually increase in difficulty to raise the academic level of Mississippi's schools.

Dr. Randy Poss, Winona Superintendent, said, "The [ranking grades] will increase over the next four years, so we have to keep moving up. We can't just stay the same and still be ranked as High Performing."

Poss said the Mississippi Department of Education hopes increasing the difficulty of achievement will boast Mississippi's scores to meet the national level.

WES principal Paul Lawrence said his teachers are using proven methods to prepare the students for May's tests.

"We are basically doing what we know is working, and that is by increasing the intensity," Lawrence said. "We are trying to pull up borderline kids from the Basic to the Proficient mark."

Lawrence said he and his teachers evaluate each individual test score and pinpoint the areas in which students need improvement. In addition, the school gives two practice tests each school year.

Lawrence said two teachers at the school are totally devoted to working with students who underperformed on the state test. Two retired teachers are also facilitating tutoring sessions with students who need additional help.

Lawrence said reading is the main focus of preparation for the test.

"We work more than anything else on getting kids reading on grade level," he said. "We also focus quite a bit on writing to improve thinking skills."

Lawrence said students are also rewarded for good efforts.

"We have all sorts of motivation and things here," he said. "Our rewards and incentives are backed by the PTO."

He said last year, the PTO helped purchase IPODS and donate cash prices to students. The organization also rented a dunking booth during last year's Spring Fling, and students were awarded turns for good work, and were allowed to take a turn dunking Lawrence.

"Our PTO is very active," Lawrence said.

In a meeting Monday night with the parents of prospective students, Lawrence said he reinforced the importance of children learning during the early years.

The first meeting of this kind held at WES, Monday's meeting was a large success, even better than Lawrence expected. He said the entire WES library was packed with parents.

"Parents need to be communicating with their children to increase vocabulary," he said. "The more you are building up the capacity, the better they will do coming in."

Lawrence said these days, students can start the learning process and have some level of education before beginning kindergarten.

"In kindergarten, our kids are doing basic reading and basic math," he said.

Those starting kindergarten should already know their numbers, colors, and have some word recognition in reading. He recommended reading to children often and talking children through processes to build problem solving skills.

For the next several weeks, The Winona Times will be printing some example questions, "Are You Smarter Than...," from elementary grades to give parents an idea of what students can expect on May's test.