Test scores improve across state
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Everyone likes to show off a good report card.
And for most schools in our area, the grades are really good.
Additionally, there has been a trend in improved test scores across the state.
The scores are called accountability scores.
Mississippi First’s Executive Director, Rachel Canter, spoke at Starkville Rotary Monday about the recent improvements.
“Part of it is because going back ten or fifteen years, we raised our state standards, so we made it more rigorous for what children should be able to do in every grade. That was a huge part of it,” said Canter.
Canter credits higher state standards, a better quality curriculum in schools, and teamwork from administrators and teachers for the increase in school ratings.
“And then we’re holding ourselves accountable for those rigorous standards, and all of that plays together. There’s no one thing. It’s all a part of system or progress that districts are making,” said Canter.
Canter said she has seen improvement in test scores over the past 10 years in Mississippi.
Now, that raises the bar.
When more than half of the state has high accountability ratings, the mark for students moves even higher.
“Under the law, once 65% or more of schools and/or districts receive a B letter grade, the Mississippi Department of Education is required to raise the cut scores, meaning make it a little bit harder to get those same letter grades,” said Canter.
In spite of the scores possibly changing for students next year, Canter says the good thing is that the students are improving.
She also encourages schools and districts to keep believing that it is possible to reach a high rating.
“And now what I hear people saying is that all kids can learn and all kids are learning and that we are showing that both in our state and to the nation, ‘yes,’ you may have a very difficult home life, but you are still capable of learning,” said Canter.
Mississippi First is a non profit, non partisan group working for a better education for Mississippi’s students.
