The Mississippi State Board of Education voted to assign unofficial letter grades for the 2017-18 school year to four schools that serve students with disabilities and the Corinth School District.
The schools and district had not received grades in previous years. State and federal laws mandate that all schools and districts be evaluated using a single accountability system. While all of the schools received either a C, D, or F rating there are no exclusions for schools with special populations.
“State and federal laws require that all schools and districts be held to the same standard so that we have a clear picture of how well they are preparing students for the future,” said Dr. Jason Dean, SBE chair.
The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that all students be included in measures of performance. The law requires those measures to be applied consistently so that schools that need improvement will be identified for support.
Unofficial grades for the schools and district are as follows:
A release from the Mississippi Department of Education states that accountability grades are based, in part, on how well students perform and progress from year to year on the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) tests for English language arts (ELA) and Mathematics. “These tests are aligned to the Mississippi College and Career Ready Standards and are administered annually to students in grades 3-8 and in high school,” the release reads.
