Calhoun County Schools all maintained their same accreditation grade from the state except for Calhoun City High School which improved from an F to a D.
The Mississippi Department of Education released letter-grade rankings last week for the state’s schools and districts. They are based on student performance on state tests taken last school year and on graduation rates.
Calhoun County School District earned a B overall. Bruce High, Calhoun City Elementary and Vardaman Elementary schools each remained Bs.
Bruce Upper Elementary, Calhoun City Middle and Vardaman High School all maintained Cs.
Calhoun City High School became the county’s first school to ever earn a failing grade last year, but improved that by nearly two letter grades based on the state scale.
Mike Moore
“They missed a C by three or four points, but it’s still a D,” Superintendent Mike Moore said. “We were certainly hoping for more.”
Bruce Elementary isn’t assigned a letter grade because it has only one state tested grade, and two are required to measure growth.
No school in the state dropped a grade because of a waiver provided by MDE. Due to the switch to Common Core State Standards last year that provide new guidelines for reading and math instruction, schools that dropped a grade were allowed to maintain their previous grade. The distinction was made so that districts could begin teaching Common Core and its higher demands without being penalized due to the state tests still being based on previous standards.
“This is three straight years we have had a different set of standards from the state,” Moore said. “Teachers are frustrated. Students are frustrated. It’s difficult for everybody.”
Moore explained while they are still analyzing the data from last year’s state tests and in-district studies, the accreditation grades from last year don’t have as much meaning because they are based on tests different from what teachers were teaching.
“We’re going to look at it within our county and focus on areas that need improvement, but that’s something we would be doing anyway,” Moore said.
This school year, students are scheduled to be tested on Common Core for the first time, but the evaluation scale still has not been approved by the State.
This year also is the first for the implementation of the third grade reading gate approved by the Legislature last year. This requires all third grade students to score a certain level on state reading exams to advance to the fourth grade.
Based on past state testing results, Moore estimated 8% of the county’s third graders could fail to meet the standard.
“We will have some that will fail,” Moore said. “The first test will be in the early spring and then we will have make-ups for those who need it.”
Programs will continue into the summer for third graders still unable to achieve the needed score.
“We hope to add more third grade teachers next year specifically to address this, but that costs money,” Moore said. He estimated one at each school to cost near ly $100,000. “We hope the legislature will keep this in mind because it won’t be just us. It will be everybody, and most districts around the state can’t afford that based on current funding.”