“Like anything else, it’s great and we want to celebrate the accomplishment, but at the same time we know there’s still work to be done and we’ll continue to strive toward that ‘A’,” said Choctaw County School Superintendent Glen Beard, concerning the District receiving a ‘B’ ranking from the Mississippi Department of Education, for the 2018-2019 school year.
Rankings for the individual schools in the district are: Ackerman Elementary, A; Weir Elementary, C; French Camp Elementary, B; Choctaw County HS, C. Beard noted that Weir Elementary missed a ‘B’ ranking by only seven points.
French Camp Elementary dropped from an ‘A’ to a ‘B’, and Beard pointed out that the reason for the drop is built into the growth model. He explained that a school might rank as an ‘A’ for a few years and then drop a grade level; for instance, French Camp, which has tested at an 80% proficiency level, does not have a lot of room left for growth, and the letter grade drop in natural and expected.
Beard added that an ‘A’ is not out of reach as the district is within about 25 points that ranking, and that the excellent ranking comes from tireless efforts of teachers, students, administrators and even parents.
He said, “It is a tremendous group effort and we really celebrate it.”
Student proficiency is rated on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest. Beard explained that MDE awards points for students who are in the 4 and 5 levels, but none for the 1-3 levels, even though the 3 level is considered proficient. Therefore, the goal is to grow as many students as possible from the 1-3 levels into the 4 and 5 levels.
He added that even though the 3 level is really good, a school can find itself in a difficult place with a lot of ‘3 students’ as the MDE awards no points for that level. Beard said that ‘3’ is a good place to be and the district has moved a lot of students from 1 and 2 to the 3 level, but there seems to be a bit of a plateau and it is not easy to move students higher, but the school staff and administrators are constantly searching new ways and methods to achieve these goals.
Beard reiterated the excitement of the district’s ‘B’ ranking, adding that he could not say enough about the efforts of all involved. He added that this is a great thing for the community as well.
When families are interested in moving to a new location one of the first things they look at is the education system, and with the ‘B’ ranking and the new high school facility which is currently under construction, Choctaw County has a lot to offer.
