Change alpha value of Sprite when using AlphaTestEffect [Resolved]

I am using AlphaTestEffect in my Spritebatch.Begin method in order to layer the depth of my character sprite with various textures in the map. However, now I am now faced with the problem of adding an alpha value to my character sprite, but am unable to do so because the AlphaTestEffect renders the sprite texture to have an opacity of either 0 or 1, but never in-between. Perhaps I am using alpha blending inappropriately, but any help would be appreciated. Below is the essentials of my drawing methods:

       _alphaEffect = new AlphaTestEffect(Game.GraphicsDevice) { VertexColorEnabled = true };

        _spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.NonPremultiplied, SamplerState.PointClamp, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, _alphaEffect, viewMatrix);
        
      //Draw the sprite with an alpha of .5--However, this does not work because I am using AlphaTestEffect!!!
       Color spriteColor = animation.Sprite.Color * 0.5f;
        _spriteBatch.Draw(texureRegion.Texture, animation.Sprite.WorldPosition, texureRegion.Bounds, spriteColor, 0, animation.Sprite.Origin, animation.Sprite.WorldScale, animation.Sprite.Effect, depth);

        _spriteBatch.End();

        _map.Draw(ref viewMatrix, ref projectionMatrix);

After enough playing around, i finally got it–just needed to change some variables and move some code around. In case anyone is interested, here is what I changed:

  _alphaEffect = new AlphaTestEffect(Game.GraphicsDevice) { VertexColorEnabled = true };

  //First, draw the lower levels of the map
  Game.GraphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.AlphaBlend;
  _map.Draw(ref viewMatrix, ref projectionMatrix);

  //Then, draw the sprite using DepthStencilState.DepthRead;
  _spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.NonPremultiplied, SamplerState.PointClamp, DepthStencilState.DepthRead, RasterizerState.CullNone, _alphaEffect, viewMatrix);
    
  //Draw the sprite with an alpha of .5
  Color spriteColor = animation.Sprite.Color * 0.5f;
  _spriteBatch.Draw(texureRegion.Texture, animation.Sprite.WorldPosition, texureRegion.Bounds, spriteColor, 0, animation.Sprite.Origin, animation.Sprite.WorldScale, animation.Sprite.Effect, depth);

  _spriteBatch.End();

  //Finally, draw the top levels of the map
  _map.DrawTopLevel(ref viewMatrix, ref projectionMatrix);