Nonprofit Mississippi News Officials from the state education department gave the green light to most school and district grades for the preceding school year, after delaying the decision by a month. The State Board of Education decided to delay the approval of statewide accountability rating ratings to allow members more time to review grades. The board approved the grades on Thursday after a discussion lasting about 30 minutes. Four schools and one district were exempted from the official approval. The Mississippi Department of Education released a press release stating that the SBE will discuss grades at its November 8 meeting for the Mississippi School for the Deaf and Mississippi School for the Blind. Corinth sued MDE last month to stop publication of ratings. They argued that the grade given to the district was fundamentally unfair. Because it is a “District of Innovation,” this district has been affected in a unique way by federal regulations.
According to the ratings, several districts are eligible for the state-run Achievement school district. State officials believe that the district will be operational by next school year. Districts with at least 50 percent of their schools rated F are eligible to be placed. The Governor can declare a state-of-emergency to place a district that has received two consecutive F’s into this model. In this model, the state board replaces local school boards and the superintendent is replaced by an interim leader. This lasts for five years. This model was adopted by Noxubee earlier in the year. Last fall, the Jackson Public Schools District was almost in this same situation. But Gov. Phil Bryant announced that his office, the City of Jackson and the W.K. The district will be improved by the Kellogg Foundation. The Charter Authorizer Board decided in September to defer the approval of two new charter schools until it could assess how other existing charter schools did with the accountability results for this year. ReImagine Prep Charter school was upgraded from a D- to a C. Smilow Prep Charter School was awarded its second consecutive D. Midtown Public Charter School retained its F grade for the past academic year. “This year’s charter school accountability ratings show that for the first-time, a charter school from Mississippi received a’successful C’ rating. Krystal Cormack (chair of the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board), said that ReImagine Prep was commended for this achievement. Click here to view the entire meeting. To support this work, make a regular donation to the Spring Member Drive today. This will allow us to continue important work such as this one.