For the first time in years, the performance of Mississippi schools and districts fell from the previous academic year, according to state education rankings released Thursday.

The new scores interrupt the steady progress of Mississippi’s education system that’s been praised across the country and occasionally referred to as the “Mississippi Miracle.” Coupled with mixed results on state tests this past year, it could signal trouble — a possibility the state superintendent frankly acknowledged in a press release this week.

“While Mississippi has made historic progress over the past decade, the areas of declining achievement demand our immediate attention,” Lance Evans said. 

This year, 80% of schools and 87% of districts received a “C” or higher on their report card. That’s a meaningful drop compared to the 2023-2024 school year, when 85.7% of schools and 93.9% of districts got a “C” or higher. 

The accountability framework was created by the state Board of Education to judge how well schools are serving their communities. It takes into account state test scores, graduation rates and academic growth. This year’s grades fall short of the board’s goal, set in 2016, that every school and district in Mississippi be rated “C” or higher.

Evans had no explanation for the shortfalls in a press call with Mississippi Department of Education officials Monday. He said as soon as agency leaders got the results, they started investigating reasons for the decline but couldn’t pinpoint one specific thing. 

“We would have loved to have been able to find one particular issue, but we did not find one,” Evans said. “We also know that over a period of … continual gains, there is going to come a point in time in which there is some drift.”

School districts closer to the Gulf Coast dominated the top of the list, including Long Beach, Ocean Springs, Petal, Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis-Waveland. 

The state’s largest school districts mostly received top scores, too. DeSoto County School District, which serves around 35,000 students, got an “A,” as did Rankin County, Harrison County and Madison County. Jackson Public Schools, the second-largest district in the state, got a “C.” 

“I will tell you the reaction that we’ve taken here at the department is we have internally done an analysis of everything we do, every support we provide, to make sure that what we’re doing is actually moving the needle now,” Evans said. 

The state Board of Education approved the accountability grades during a meeting Thursday.

Will grades impact school choice expansion efforts?

With the legislative session on the horizon, the slipping scores could provide fodder for school choice advocates, who have been met with opposing arguments about the success of the state’s public schools. 

Nancy Loome, education advocate and director of The Parents’ Campaign, said it’s important to note that the accountability grades place a strong emphasis on growth. Because Mississippi has consistently seen improvements, she said, it’s harder to maintain that growth from year to year. Last year’s accountability grades were an all-time high for the state. 

She pointed out the National Assessment of Education Progress scores from 2024 showed Mississippi fourth-graders ranked ninth in the country for reading and 16th for math scores.

“I don’t think we have a crisis,” Loome said. “Even as individuals we have good days and bad days, and we’re going to have little bumps in the road. But we didn’t go off a cliff, and I still believe that performance in Mississippi public schools is wonderful.”

The accountability grades could also pave the way for expansion of charter schools, which are publicly-funded schools that operate with more autonomy and independently from districts. Under current state law, charter schools can only be established where local public schools are failing. This year, nine districts earned a “D” or “F” grade, up from three the prior year. 

At the same time, six out of seven of the state’s charter schools that were graded this past year got a “D” or “F” rating.

Angela Bass, executive director of policy research organization Mississippi First and a former charter school leader, said it’s “sobering” to see charters at the bottom of the list. 

But she, like Loome, didn’t think the grades were a signal the state is headed in the wrong direction.

“Of course, it’s always a time to reflect when we see the number of ‘A’ to ‘C’ districts declining and seeing an increase in ‘D’ and ‘F’ grades,” Bass said. “We think that these grades are a tool that helps us reflect on where we are and pinpoint where we need to target our efforts.”

Bass said her organization is focusing on how to bolster early education and literacy efforts, and strengthen the high-quality teacher pipeline in Mississippi. The latter is one of the reasons agency officials gave on the press call Monday for lowered accountability grades among struggling districts in the Delta. 

Some Delta districts struggle, while others shine

Letter grades fell for Holmes County, Humphreys County, Yazoo City and Noxubee County after previously making improvements. All have been taken over by the state for failing performance.

Evans acknowledged his disappointment about the four struggling districts under state control, and said making systemic changes in those districts is “complex work that does not happen overnight.” 

Three out of these four “Districts of Transformation” are in the Delta, a region with understaffed schools, districts with some of the lowest pay for teachers and schools that routinely receive low grades from the accountability system.

“Students are being taught by substitute teachers who are not knowledgeable about the content in some cases,” said Clayton Barksdale, a former principal in Greenville and current executive director of the West Mississippi Education Consortium.

Nearly all school districts that received a “D” or an “F” are in the Delta region, with Yazoo City and Clarksdale both receiving an “F.” Greenville, Humphreys County, West Bolivar and Greenwood-Leflore all received a “D.”

“If you look at the larger school districts, which are struggling, they have high turnover at the administrative level,” Barksdale said. “How can there be constant growth with a different superintendent and a different mission and a different vision year after year?”

For teachers in struggling districts, boosting the school’s accountability score and encouraging student progress makes up a big portion of work responsibilities. State-tested teachers are often paired with consultants who work with them to move the bottom 25% of students in a subject, which is prioritized in the school accountability system.

Sylvia Jones, a high school science teacher in Humphreys County, said that meant spending her planning period and after school time studying data in which students are ranked by how they scored on their most recent state tests. Students also took biweekly benchmark assessments to track progress throughout the year.

But with so much testing, Jones had to discuss strategies to avoid burnout and build endurance. It can put a lot of pressure on students and staff, she said.

Three Delta school districts received “B” ratings. Tunica County retained its “B” from last year and was the highest performing Delta school district. Leland and Hollandale, two of the smallest districts in the state and located in Washington County, moved from a “C” to a “B.”

“I would credit (the ‘B’) to teacher retention and curbing absenteeism,” said the Rev. Jessie King, superintendent of Leland School District. “We continuously studied the data.”

He said attendance was 90% to 93% most days.

“I would tell other Delta school districts, it is doable and achievable if there is buy-in from staff and administration,” King said. “Public education in Mississippi is an all-time success story. I would say in the midst of upcoming legislative changes, we should rally around the success of our public schools.

“Right now, I don’t think the timing is ripe for an overhaul.”

Next steps

Moving forward, the state education agency plans to seek more dollars from the Legislature this spring to fund a math initiative for grades 2-6 and an adolescent literacy initiative for grades 4-8, expanding the agency’s previous literacy work that transformed reading in Mississippi. 

The state education department is also working on a new strategic plan that will be released in 2026 and updating the accountability system by which schools are measured. The new framework, which will be finalized this fall, will add a focus on college and career readiness and raise the standards for each letter grade. 

“The foundation we have built over the past decade remains strong,” Evans said. “Higher academic standards, targeted support for teachers, and a strong accountability system have improved student achievement in Mississippi over the long term. This year’s results do not change our commitment to these proven strategies.”

C. Alan Burrow, associate superintendent for district and school performance, said Thursday that schools with low proficiency rates can earn points through growth.

“Accountability is essential to ensuring that we’re working towards our overall goals, making sure that all students are ready to be successful when they leave public education,” Burrow said.