By Patricia Levesque, ExcelinEd
This op-ed originally appeared in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger
We know that when it comes to school accountability, what gets measured gets done.
In some states, measurement of student outcomes is all over the board. In Mississippi, officials have designed a system that makes sense and that parents can trust to give them an accurate assessment of how their child’s school is doing. The Office of School and District and School Performance in Mississippi measures every school district and individual school on an annual basis to see how the state’s education system is progressing. This grade considers student achievement, individual student growth, graduation rate and college and career readiness.
According to the 2024 data, Mississippi student outcomes are trending in the right direction.
In 2022, fewer than 56% of school districts earned that high of a grade. This year, more than 70% of all school districts in the state earned an A or B grade.
Let’s be clear: This is not a story about high-performing school districts continuing to perform better while others are left behind. Quite the opposite, in fact.
