- Senate, House Education Committee Chairmen ready to work with MDE to raise the academic bar in Mississippi.
According to the latest Mississippi Statewide Accountability report, a record number of school districts received a grade of C or higher.
READ MORE: Record number of Mississippi school districts receive grade of C or higher in latest accountability report
With Mississippi’s schools reaching a new threshold, state education leaders now say it’s time to continue that growth by updating standards for student, school and district performance. The work to update those standards, however, will take about a year before implementation occurs.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Mississippi State Board of Education, Chief Accountability Officer Dr. Paula Vanderford told members that state statute mandates that assessment standards be increased when the student proficiency scores are at 75 percent and/or 65 percent of schools are rated a B or higher on the assessment scale.
For the 2023-2024 school year, 93.9 percent of districts and 85.7 percent of schools in the state were rated a C or higher. Those rated an A or B for that same school year include 70.3 percent of districts and 66.7 percent of schools.
State Senator Dennis DeBar (R) told Magnolia Tribune that he appreciates the major role the state’s educators and administrators played in improving Mississippi’s education ranking from 50th to 35th, which are also reflected in the recent assessment results.
“I’m super proud and happy with the way the districts have put in the work,” DeBar said. “It really shows that hard work does pay off.”
State Representative Rob Roberson (R) noted that the results show the state is continuing to improve academically, and he wants that work to continue.
“This shouldn’t be in any way, shape or form an end point,” Roberson said. “This should be a good starting point for us to move even higher and better.”
DeBar and Roberson chair the Senate and House Education Committees, respectively.
As MDE works with the Legislature in the revision process, Vanderford said whether to use the ACT as a replacement for end of course testing for high school students is still being considered. SB 2689, which was authored by Senator DeBar during the 2024 legislative session, proposed that change but the bill died in conference late in the session.
Proposed revisions to the assessment model are expected to be completed this fall, with a focus on incorporating more readiness components. Those are likely to include college readiness, employment readiness and potential enlistment in the military, Vanderford described.
Rep. Roberson agrees that more can be done to prepare Mississippi’s students for adulthood, such as emphasizing soft skills – the importance of being on time and getting along with co-workers, for example – traits that apply whether a student goes on to college or enters the workforce.
“Honestly, it’s not for the sake of any assessment, it’s for their own sake,” Roberson said.
While Roberson said it’s not the job of the state to raise children, he said the state’s education system plays a role in providing students with life’s building blocks.
Several steps are required before the new standards are put in place, including review of the changes by MDE’s Accountability Task Force, Technical Advisory Committee, and the Commission of School Accreditation. A public comment period is also required, Vanderford said.
Implementation of the new standards is expected in the summer of 2026.
“We have another year, so one more year, the current school year that we are in, that we would utilize the current standards that we have for measuring schools and districts,” Vanderford explained.
Senator DeBar and Rep. Roberson are prepared to work in collaboration with MDE on the updated standards as education leaders and lawmakers alike continue to raise the academic bar in Mississippi.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of getting the vast majority of our students at a college ready stage, even if sometimes we have to have some remediation,” Roberson said. “I’m kind of excited about where we are, and I’m very excited about where we are going.”
Jeremy Pittari
