The Mississippi Department of Education has announced that Mississippi students continue to score higher on state tests than non-profit Mississippi News. The 2018-19 school year results for the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) were released by the department. This program measures student achievement in math and reading at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Students can earn a minimum (1), basic (2) or pass (3), proficient ((4), or advanced (5). These tests were taken by more than 250,000 students this year. “Needless, to say, we are very excited,” stated Carey Wright (state superintendent), who thanked Mississippi principals and teachers for their continued success. She said, “This is the fourth consecutive year that our results have improved again.” The number of students scoring a four- or five on math exams this year increased by 3.5 percentage points over the previous school year. 47.4% earned a proficient or advanced grade. In every grade, students improved on last year’s performance. Overall, English Language Arts exam performance improved from 39% to 41.6% of students scoring proficient or advanced. However, reading in English II and sixth grade took a hit. Wright pointed out that the sixth grade group saw a drop of 4.4 percentage points in ELA. This is the same group that saw scores dips in fourth and fifth grades. English II scores fell 3.3 percentage points to 44.5 percent last year. The 2018-19 school year saw scores drop further with 43.8 percent of students being proficient or advanced. Wright stated that a drop of.7 percentage is not something Wright was concerned about. Wright suggested that a possible reason behind the decline in these scores could be that the students who are not part of the reform curriculum have not been exposed to the same educational opportunities as elementary school students today. Wright explained that English II is an example of a student group that has not experienced a lot of our reform work. “You will see many of these things change since students who started our reform work in 4th grade are now in 5th grade.” The test scores will be used to determine school district accountability scores. These scores combine several factors to give an A-F rating. These scores will be released by the department in mid-September. Top 10 School Districts in ELA: Top Ten School Districts in Math: