Columbus Municipal School District maintained its D rating, but Superintendent Philip Hickman is optimistic that the school district will improve moving forward.
The Lowndes County School District scored the highest among Golden Triangle districts, maintaining its B rating.
The ratings are part of the 2014-15 school accountability results published by the Mississippi Department of Education. They assign each school district a letter based on performance on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests.
The 2014-15 school year was the last year under a waiver for the state from the U.S. Department of Education to compensate for Mississippi transitioning to a more difficult test, according to a release from MDE. The waiver allowed school districts to maintain letter grades from the 2013-14 school year if the 2014-15 school year grade is lower.
Hickman said CMSD used the waiver year to build student fundamentals in preparation for the waiver going out of effect in the 2015-16 school year.
“We knew it would be a waiver year so we wanted to focus on building background skills the kids didn’t have,” Hickman said. “This year, the results that are coming up at the end of August or October–those are the ones where we should see the progress in what we did.”
Hickman said the district made a priority of getting technology for students to prepare them for the test, which is administered electronically. He added that CMSD emphasized improving its students’ math and reading scores.
MDE normally releases accountability scores in the fall after the end of the school year. The 2014-15 grades, according to today’s news release from MDE, were delayed because of data quality errors with the PARCC tests and Dynamic Learning maps, which is an alternate assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities. MDE has since moved to using a new test, the Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP).
The accountability scores factor in student proficiency and growth in reading, math, science and history. Scores also factor a school’s four-year graduation rate in schools with a 12th grade.
Most of CMSD’s schools kept their 2014-15 rating. However, Columbus High School improved from a D to a C rating. Hickman said he expects that increase to carry across the district’s other schools in the fall.
“That’s what we expect of our elementary schools this year,” Hickman said. “Based off of what our data is telling us, we expect to see them move up as well.”
CMSD’s graduation rate for the 2014-15 school year sat at about 70 percent, according to MDE. Hickman said that’s up 10 percent from the previous year’s 60-percent graduation rate.
“This year coming up, it’s 78 to 79 percent,” Hickman said. “We’re hovering around 80 percent and the state average is 81 percent. That’s miraculous. Most people don’t increase their graduation rate 10 percent each year.”
Most LCSD schools maintained their grades from the previous year, except for Caledonia High School, which improved from a C to a B rating. The district posted an 85 percent graduation rate.
Lowndes County School District Superintendent Lynn Wright could not be reached for comment by press time.
Starkville and Oktibbeha County
Starkville School District maintained a C rating.
SSD Assistant Superintendent for Personnel, Secondary Curriculum and Instruction, and Technology David Baggett said the district won’t dwell on 2014-15’s results because the state has moved on from using the PARCC assessment. Plus, the district in 2015-16 completed its first year of consolidation with the former Oktibbeha County School District.
Baggett said the Starkville-Oktibbeha County School District will continue its recent focus on raising performances of the bottom 25 percent of its students.
“One of the things we’ve tried to do over the last three years is focus on the bottom 25 percent and help them grow and become more proficient so they’re moving along toward graduation,” he said. “If you look at most schools, they held their own or improved scores with the bottom 25 percent. We feel really good about that with the measures we’ve put in place.”
The district’s schools held the same ratings from the 2013-14 academic year, except for Starkville High School, which improved from a C to B rating.
SSD reported a 77 percent graduation rate, according to the accountability results.
Baggett said the held professional development to focus on reading and comprehension for its teachers, and implemented more year-long classes to strengthen its bottom 25 percent.
“The results are evident,” he said. “I give all the credit to the students and teachers. They bought in to what we asked them to do. As a result, the high school made significant gains and is now a B school.”
Oktibbeha County School District, in its final year of operation, maintained its C rating from the 2013-14 academic year. The district’s schools all held their ratings. East Oktibbeha County Elementary maintained its C rating; East Oktibbeha County High School maintained a D; West Oktibbeha County Elementary maintained a B and West Oktibbeha County High School maintained a D.
OCSD posted a 49 percent graduation rate.
Moving forward, the SOCSD has a three-year waiver in accountability results, beginning with the 2015-16 year.
“That gives the schools and the district a chance to get everything working as it should be with consolidation,” Baggett said. “However, we’re not going to let that stop us from looking at our data on what we’re doing well and what we need to improve.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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