The Columbia and Marion County school districts both fell from B to C grades under state ratings released Thursday, although Marion County officially keeps its B through an exemption.
Marion County ranked 57th overall out of Mississippi’s 147 school districts, while Columbia was 61st.
First-year Columbia Superintendent Jason Harris said he was sending letters to the staff and parents Thursday.
“It’s some disappointing news for us, but I’m confident that the hard work I see going on in this school year, the 2017-2018 year, we’ll be able to increase our student achievement,” he said.
The results are based on the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program exams taken in the spring. The state Department of Education said those assessments are used to measure proficiency and growth for students in third through eighth grades and high school students taking end-of-course subject-area exams in algebra I, English II, biology and U.S. history. High school grades also include graduation rates and performance on Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment college classes. Fifth and eighth graders are also tested in science.
A big part of the grade is based on growth, especially among the lowest 25 percent of students.
The state Board of Education changed the baseline in August, which caused some districts’ and schools’ ratings to go down.
The Marion County district received 595 total points and Columbia 587. Before the change in August, 588 was the lowest grade for a B district. But the new threshold is 599, pushing Marion County down to a C. However, the state allowed districts in that situation to keep the higher grade, meaning Marion County is still officially a B.
Harris noted that it’s been a lot of moving targets for districts to aim for as the state has made multiple changes over the past few years in the kind of tests it uses and how it rates schools. He said Columbia was a few points from maintaining a B on the old scale and that he’s confident they can get back up to that grade.
He also said there’s a lot more to schools than a test score and that they are releasing an “accountability dashboard” on the district’s website Monday that gives information on the district as a whole. That includes things like the graduation rate, third-grade reaching gate, average daily attendance, ACT scores and Advanced Placement tests.
Harris said the district is also making a big push to increase the number of electronic learning devices it has and is looking at things like the ratio of computers to students in the district.
At an individual school level, Columbia Primary School rose from a C to a B. But Columbia Elementary School dropped from a B to a C. Jefferson Middle School remained at a C.
Columbia High School was the district’s highest-scoring school and stayed at a B. Columbia High ranked 53rd out of the state’s 241 high schools.
In the county district, both East Marion and West Marion high schools jumped from a C to a B in the official grades. They would have made a B under the old baseline, but a C under the new baseline. East Marion ranked 111th out of 241 high schools and West Marion 128th.
West Marion Primary and West Marion Elementary both remained at C’s, while East Marion Elementary went from a C to a D.
The Petal School District was the top-rated in the state, followed by Oxford and Booneville. Lamar County was seventh. Leflore County was last, just behind Humphreys County and Jackson city schools.
