2019 School and District Accountability Ratings Released

Posted 9/17/19

MDE has released unofficial* school and district accountability ratings for the 2018-2019 school year. See your school and district ratings.

Statewide, student achievement continues to rise, despite chronic underfunding of public schools and a crisis-level teacher shortage. More schools are rated A and B and fewer are rated D and F than in the year prior.

Kudos to our teachers and students for their hard work; it is paying off! Be sure to thank a teacher today.

As you know, school ratings tell only part of the story of what's happening every day in our classrooms. The good work continues, regardless of ratings or test scores. Our duty as parents and public school supporters is to ensure that Mississippi provides every school the resources and funding needed to help each of its students thrive in reading, math, science, history, art, music, and more.

Let's start by electing state leaders who value and respect public educators and public school students. If you are not registered to vote, please do so by October 7 in order to participate in the November 5 statewide election. See candidates' responses to our public education Q&A.

Notes regarding accountability ratings:
*Ratings will be made official at a meeting of the Mississippi Board of Education on Thursday. Also, ratings for attendance centers can be found this year in a separate "Non-traditional 1000-point School" list.

Accountability Changes Proposed, Feedback Period Open Now

Posted 4/11/19

More changes have been proposed for the Statewide Accountability System, and the public is asked to provide feedback. The deadline to submit comments is 5:00 p.m. on April 30.

The most significant changes being proposed are those related to:

• Definition of a School At-Risk and in need of assistance

• Requiring the use of established percentiles when cut-points are reset

• Accountability ratings for attendance centers and other schools with a grade configuration that includes both grade 12 and grades below 9

• Full Academic Year (FAY) for students who are concurrently enrolled in more than one school district

• Acceleration component

• English learners (EL)

• Inclusion of alternate diploma students in the calculation of graduation rate

• Definitions and titles associated with Focus, Priority, and Reward schools

You can find the specific changes noted in red here.

Your comments may be submitted in writing as follows:

Email comments to:
accreditation@mdek12.org

Mail comments to:
Mr. Alan Burrow
Office of District and School Performance
P.O. Box 771
Jackson, MS 39205-0771

Hand-deliver comments to:
Office of District and School Performance
359 N. West Street
Jackson, MS

Comments will be presented to the Mississippi Board of Education at its meeting on May 9, at which time the board will vote on whether or not to adopt the changes. Your voice matters; thank you for weighing in on this important issue!

State Test Scores and Other Testing News

Posted 8/15/19

State test scores are in, and the news is good! School districts continued their decades-long trend of academic improvement. Mississippi students showed gains in nearly every grade and subject area, with more students scoring in the top three proficiency levels and fewer scoring in levels one and two. See the percent of students in your school and school district who scored in each proficiency category. School and district ratings are due out later in the fall.

The number of school districts with more than 45 percent of their students scoring proficient or advanced has more than tripled since the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) was first administered in 2016. In mathematics, the number of districts in that category has more than quadrupled. Congratulations to our hard-working teachers and students!

More on testing

The Mississippi Student Testing Task Force recently voted 9-2 to recommend that the State Board of Education eliminate the U.S. History end-of-course assessment, the only state test not required by federal or state law. The vote followed a poll that showed 77 percent of high school teachers oppose continuing the exam. The Commission on School Accreditation will consider the task force recommendation on August 19, and the final decision will be made by the State Board of Education. Any change would not affect the current (2019-2020) school year.

Additional surveys (https://www.mdek12.org/sites/default/files/Superintendent/teacher_survey_results.pdf and https://www.mdek12.org/sites/default/files/Superintendent/district_survey_results.pdf) regarding state testing showed that the inordinate amount of time required to administer the tests is associated primarily with the move to online assessments.

The most common reasons listed for excessive time spent on testing were:
• an insufficient number of electronic devices (students must be cycled through a limited number of computers to take the online assessments)
• problems with district broadband access and testing vendor software

The great work being done by our teachers and students is paying off, and they deserve our steadfast support. One of the most impactful ways to provide them support is by electing state leaders who respect teachers and are committed to investing appropriately in our public schools.

Please demonstrate your support for our teachers and students by voting for pro-teacher, pro-public school candidates in the August 27 Primary Runoff Election. If you can't make it to the polls, be sure to vote absentee in your Circuit Clerk's office by noon on Saturday, August 24.

2018 School and District Accountability Ratings Released

Posted 10/11/18

School and district accountability ratings have been released.  Find the grades assigned to your school and district.

The State Board of Education voted to delay for a month approval of ratings for the Corinth School District and four special schools. The Schools for the Blind and the Deaf, as well as two school0s on the Coast that also serve exclusively students who have special needs, have never received ratings. The Corinth School District has been exempted from ratings based on the A-F accountability system that has been in place since 2012.

Across Mississippi, student achievement continues to rise, and students and teachers are to be commended for their hard work. Proficiency rates in reading, math, science, and history are improving, and graduation rates are the highest they've ever been. You can find in-depth accountability information about your school and district on the new Mississippi Succeeds Report Card, launched today by the Mississippi Department of Education.

For some of the districts at the lower end of the accountability spectrum, the reality is better than the ratings suggest. As we predicted last year, the true level of progress being made in some of our struggling school districts has been masked by the constant resetting of cut scores - the bar by which schools are measured. Had baseline cut scores remained constant at the level set in 2016, 10 of the 21 districts rated F this year would be rated D, five of those rated D would be rated C, and 10 rated C would be rated B (see analysis and listing of these districts).

Kudos to our teachers and students who remain focused on what's important: learning. There is so much to celebrate in Mississippi's public schools! Be sure to thank a teacher today.