When the Mississippi Department of Education released its school accountability ratings for 2013-14 today, it only served to confirm what we have known for quite some time: Our city’s schools are struggling.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Columbus Municipal School District has been rated a D (under-performing) district while Columbus High School was rated D for the second straight year after twice being rated as “at risk of failing or failing school” in the past five years. That’s three Ds and two Fs in five years, a report card no one would want to bring home.
Meanwhile, the four-year graduation rate at CHS is 13.6 percentage points below the state average of 74.5 percent and its drop-out rate is 6.1 percentage points higher than the state average of 13.9 percent. In other words, of all of the students who entered the ninth grade in Columbus in fall of 2009, almost four in 10 did not graduate with their class this May. Two in five dropped out of school somewhere during that four-year period.
During 2013-14, there was some optimism among administrators that many of the district’s schools were well on their way to improved rating. Yet Monday’s report showed that just one city school — Stokes-Beard Elementary, which went from a D to a C — improved its rating. That none of the schools saw their ratings fall is cold comfort, at best.
Two months after the 2013-14 school year ended, CMSD hired Dr. Philip Hickman as superintendent. If he did not appreciate the gravity of the task before him then, the MDE ratings have surely driven home that point with sobering clarity.
Hickman is the district’s fourth superintendent in as many years. While there is some reason for optimism that new leadership equipped with new ideas can reverse this five-year trend of low performance, it is also not unreasonable to question whether the arrival of a single administrator can be expected to cure all that so obviously ails the district.
It’s clear the status quo isn’t working. Hickman acknowledged as much in a meeting with The Dispatch editorial board soon after his hiring. He also hasn’t been shy about telling the public about the large numbers of under-performing students in the district. Acknowledging the problem is a good first step, but it’s past time to begin a dramatic change.
There is also the unpleasant possibility that the district is simply beyond redemption unless the state steps in and takes control, something it has done with success over the years.
Meanwhile, our county schools are flourishing. The Lowndes County School District has maintained a B (high-performing) rating for three straight years now. For the 2013-14 school year, the county’s nine schools boasted one A rating (Caledonia Elementary) and five B ratings. None of the schools rated any lower than C (successful).
In drawing the distinction between the county’s success and the city’s mediocre performance, it is easy to suggest that the chicken-and-egg causality dilemma facing the city’s schools is the defining difference. The overwhelming majority of the children in the city’s schools are from poor families — close to 90 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced lunches, for example. The old question, which comes first — poverty or poor education — cannot be ignored as a contributing factor in the poor performance of its schools.
Yet before we simply assume that a district populated with poor kids cannot be expected to succeed, we find a rebuttal to that argument in our own back yard. West Lowndes, too, is an area made up of predominately poor kids, yet West Lowndes High School has been rated as C (successful) for two straight years after being rated an F (at risk of failing or failing) just three years ago. Likewise, West Lowndes Middle School moved up from D to C this year. West Lowndes Elementary School has enjoyed a B (high-performing) rating for the past two years.
While we can point to what has happened at West Lowndes as evidence that poor schools can improve, each district and each school is its own entity with its own unique challenges.
We advocate that Hickman be given wide latitude in attacking the serious problems that face our city’s schools. It’s time for dramatic, effective change. The district needs the community’s support and should be provided all the tools necessary to address this challenge.
We wish Hickman and his staff every success, of course.
It’s an awfully tough job.
We are reminded of that yet again with today’s MDE ratings.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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