Noxubee County School District earned a D in the most recent Mississippi Department of Education Accountability ratings, breaking a seven-year streak of F ratings.
Earl Nash Elementary and B.F. Liddell Middle School earned Ds and Noxubee County High School earned a C in the unofficial ratings released Tuesday, which measured student performance in the 2021-22 school year.
In a press release sent Tuesday by Khristy Franklin, district family engagement and communication coordinator, the letter grade increase is credited to the student progress made during the 2021-22 school year after a decline due to COVID-19.
Superintendent Washington Cole goes further to credit the work of those in the district but also those in the community who invested in helping the students.
“Our team came in with one goal in mind: getting our administrators, our teaching staff, our support staff, parents and the community involved in the academic outcomes of our boys and girls,” Cole said. “We tried to really heighten the awareness of the value education places on the lives of our students and how important that is. We have a lot of work to do, and we have to stay in that fight.”
Since 2018 NCSD has been under a state conservatorship because of its consistent F grades and various other violations, including a negative fund balance in 2018. When the conservatorship began, the previous board was removed, a new superintendent was appointed and instructional leaders were placed at the three schools in the district, per state law.
Because of the conservatorship, NCSD is dubbed a “district of transformation” by MDE. As of August 2021, there are two other school districts in addition to NCSD named a district of transformation.
MDE sites many reasons a district may fall under a conservatorship including “if a school district meets the State Board of Education’s definition of a failing school district for two consecutive full school years; in the event that more than 50 percent of the schools within the school district are designated as Schools At-Risk in any one year; a lack of financial resources; or failure to meet minimum academic standards as evidenced by a continued pattern of poor student performance.”
Even with the new letter grade, Cole did not confirm that the district would move forward without the conservatorship as this is only the first year the district has not been given an F.
“We’ve been a district of transformation since 2018,” Cole said. “This grade means that we are getting better. We are working on enhancing our teaching capabilities with our teaching staff, our administrators and our students. Everybody’s engaged in the process, and we’re headed in the right direction.”
Cole is entering his second year as the superintendent, and he said the district is now looking to progress beyond a D grade.
“When you look at our proficiency levels, we are nowhere near where we need to be,” Cole said. “The past two years with the pandemic have really set some of our students behind. We are going to meet them where they are and push them forward. A year’s worth of instruction is still a year’s gain. We are in a situation where we have to increase the rigor of the academic experience and really focus on students’ strengths and weaknesses, more importantly, and get them the appropriate instruction at each grade level.”
In order to continue moving forward, Cole said the district is going to continue to look at data to address areas of need, look at the best to help students who may fall behind and get parents involved. He said students and parents know their individual targets, and that will help them push forward with their academic goals.
Over the last few years, the district established an Early Learning Collaborative pre-kindergarten program. The ELC helps students who are four-years-old and headed to kindergarten, and it addresses literacy and increasing the students’ kindergarten readiness.
In the progress forward, Cole asked for parents and community members to continue to believe in the children’s success and to help them not fall back.
“Where we’re going is not where we’ve been,” Cole said.
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