Kindergarten students in the Vicksburg Warren School District showed significant growth on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Results, gaining 204 scaled score points.

Superintendent Chad Shealy said students are tested when they come into kindergarten, those scores showed this year’s students were 23 scale score points below the state average at 488 points. The students were retested this spring and scored an average of 692 points, 12 scale score points above the state average for students tested again in the spring.

“I was really excited to see that number,” he said. “Especially because that’s the only group I can really own.”

Though scores showed significant growth, Shealy said the initial scores caused the school district to put some new programs into place.

“It brought about some good talk with the district,” he said. “We’re going to embark on several things.”

Vicksburg Warren School District plans to implement an early literacy focus, Shealy said.

“We provided free training to all the daycares,” he said. “We had a Common Core training for them to help get those kids ready for kindergarten, so when they come to us they can at least have a goal of curriculum and focus.”

Shealy said the school district also increased its own preschool offerings. Rather than limiting the number of classes available, Shealy said his goal was to be able to fund preschool classes for everyone who applied.

“We went to the school board, and they appreciated it,” he said. “They were all behind it because if you raise the bottom rung of the ladder, you’re going to raise them all.”

A third program in the works is called EXCEL BY 5, which the school board is partnering with the United Way to implement.

“It deals with the preparedness of children to get them ready to come to school,” he said.

The Vicksburg Warren School District will be the support partner and the United Way will be the fiscal partner, Shealy said.

“What this does is it allows us to have a community focus on early literacy,” he said. “We’re looking at getting ahold of our new moms at hospitals and finding ways to supply books to them to increase text in the households and increase opportunities for learning.”

Shealy said the school district also plans to host community readings at churches and the library led by community leaders.

“If we can get parents exposing texts and reading to students and we can provide some opportunities for them to do that, it’s going to raise the level of education for the whole community,” he said.