Rallying cry of city students: Do your best on state test
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Students at Williamson Elementary School got rousing support as they prepare to take the Ohio Achievement Assessment next week.
“We want them to bring on the OAA because we are ready,” Principal Wanda Clark shouted at a Thursday morning rally at the school. “Are we ready?”
Students shouted back that they are.
First- and second-graders marched in the school gymnasium, holding posters and cheering, “Do your best, pass the test.”
Several students and classes performed original songs, poems, raps and dances. Wilson Sixth and Seventh Grade Academy students and the dance team from East High School also performed.
Students said the rally helped them as they’re gearing up for the state test. Third- through eighth-graders in Ohio take the OAA that tests their reading, math, science, social studies and writing knowledge.
Fourth-grader Antanasia Crockett, 9, said she did great on the test last year so she’s not too worried about next week. Still, the rally helped.
“It helped me not be so nervous,” she said.
Antanasia led her classmates in a song about the big test.
“I know I can pass the test and so can you,” the song says. “Do your best on the test.”
Fifth-grader Maya Stinson, 11, showed off her gymnastics skills, doing a cartwheel across the stage as her class performed.
She scored advanced on last year’s exam, she said, so she’s not concerned about next week.
Fourth-graders Christopher Lopez, 9, and Timothy Neail, 10, said hearing from guest speakers such as the Rev. Kenneth Simon of New Bethel Baptist Church; Yulanda McCarty Harris, director of equal opportunity and diversity at Youngstown State University; and Madonna Chism Pinkard, community relations director at 21 WFMJ-TV, was encouraging.
The Rev. Mr. Simon urged students to keep the four A’s in mind: attitude, ability, attempt and achieve.
McCarty-Harris said a lot of people are supporting the students.
“We’ve got your back,” she said.
Other guest speakers included school board members Richard Atkinson and Andrea Mahone, Mike McNair of the Buckeye Review, the Rev. Bradley Pace of St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Rev. Lock P. Beachum Jr. of Victory Christian Center in Liberty and Marcia Harris, the city’s chief fire inspector.