Status quo can mean distinctly different things to different people.
The Mississippi Department of Education released its annual letter grades for school districts Friday for the 2013-14 school year and the results showed little change from last year for Golden Triangle schools.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Columbus Municipal School District earned a D (low-performing) grade, while the Lowndes County School District was rated a B (high-performing) district for the third consecutive year.
Of 16 total schools, just four saw a change in their letter grade, all moving up a grade. That short list includes Stokes-Beard Elementary School (C), Caledonia Middle School (B), New Hope High School (B) and West Lowndes Middle School (C).
Schools were rated on a scale of A through F. An A is considered a “star” school or district, B is “high-performing,” C is “successful,” D is “low-performing” and F is “at risk of failing or failing.”
As a whole, there was only one A or “star” school — Caledonia Elementary, which has maintained its A status for the past three years. Earlier this month, the school was one of just two Mississippi schools to earn the prestigious National Blue Ribbon School designation from the U.S. Department of Education.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are no “F” schools or districts after Noxubee County School District moved up to D status in 2013-14.
In many ways, the 2013-14 school year was a challenging one as Mississippi schools were charged with implementing new college and career standards, commonly known as Common Core.
“Status quo is not bad when you look at what we were given to deal with last year by our state,” said Dr. Robin Ballard, assistant superintendent at the Lowndes County School District. “We had to implement the new standards, so there was a mismatch between our curriculum and assessment. It was like measuring apples and oranges, so for us to maintain our ratings is really, really great. The state told us we should be prepared to see our assessments drop by 30 to 40 points. That didn’t happen with us and we’re thrilled.”
Columbus Municipal School District
The ratings were disappointing on many fronts for city schools. During the school year, administrators had expressed confidence that some of its schools would improve their ratings. However, with the exception of Stokes-Beard, which moved from low-performing to successful, no school improved its grade.
Columbus High School earned a D grade for the second straight year. In the past five years the high school has three Ds and two Fs. Columbus Middle School earned a D grade for the third consecutive year, as did Cook Elementary.
Sale Elementary is the only city school to earn a B (high-performing) grade.
In July, Dr. Philip Hickman became the district’s fourth superintendent in as many years.
“These ratings didn’t come on our watch, but we accept the responsibility,” he said Thursday. “We’ve had some time to look at these ratings and that prompted some of the changes that we felt were urgent to make.”
Although the ratings are disappointing, Hickman said he is confident the district can succeed.
“I think we’re dealing with the best and the brightest when you look at our student population,” Hickman said. “We have the right people in the right place and I believe we have the best students.”
Hickman said the improvements will not come quickly or easily.
“We realize it’s a process to really affect the change we need, but we’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “We’re taking large steps because we don’t believe the children have time to wait for us to get it right. We need to get it right immediately.”
Lowndes County School District
For the third consecutive year, Lowndes County School District has earned a B (high-performing) rating, with five of its nine schools earning a B rating to go along with Caledonia Elementary’s A grade. No school in the district rated below a C. Among those improving their ratings in 2013-14 were New Hope High School which earned a B; Caledonia Middle School, which moved from a C to a B rating; and West Lowndes Middle School, now with a C rating after being rated a D school for the previous two years.
New Hope High School has now improved a letter grade in each of the past three years. In 2010-11, the school was rated as a D.
“One of the things we did there was to go to block scheduling last year,” Ballard said. “I think it really made a difference. It meant students had more time in the classroom and our teachers had more time with the students to really dig deeper into the subjects they were teaching. I think it was really a big step forward.”
Oktibbeha County
Both Starkville School District and the separate county system maintained their respective “C” district-level rankings. All nine OCSD and SSD schools also maintained their respective grades.
OCSD’s four-year graduation rate dropped almost 6 points to 61.4 percent, according to MDE’s statistics, while Starkville High School improved its mark almost 10 points, jumping to 75.4 percent.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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