JACKSON, Miss.–The latest numbers have come out from the Department of Education in the state and some of them are up for the year.
More students scored proficient and advanced in every grade on the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2) and on the Subject Area Testing Program, Second Edition (SATP2), according to numbers released by the MDE.
Districts also showed a four-year graduation rate of 75.5 percent, the highest rate since re-calculations were done in 2007.
There was also a three-percent drop in the dropout rate over the last year.
“The assessment results are the product of hard work by students and teachers across the state under more rigorous standards,” said Dr. Lynn House, interim state superintendent of education. “While we are pleased with the overall growth in academic performance, we know that some of our schools are still struggling. We are implementing initiatives and working with districts to help students as we continue to move Mississippi to standards that will better prepare them for post secondary education and the workforce.”
She said the new graduation-rate numbers and lower dropout rates are because more districts are targeting at risk students and encouraging them to stay in school and also focusing on attendance.
The Mississippi Education Achievement Council met Thursday in Jackson where House talked about trying to implement A.C.T scores into the way school districts are graded.
“The hope is that we’ll get the funding so we can give the A.C.T to all students in the eleventh grade,” she said.
If that were able to happen then those scores could factor into a school district’s grade.
House pointed out right now there is nothing in the curriculum that brings the A.C.T into the classroom and that needs to be accomplish at a much higher level.
