State testing will continue this year, but State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said Wednesday she recommends waiving the passing requirements for the statewide third grade reading test and high school end-of-course tests.

The department is also recommending schools and districts retain their letter grade from the 2018-19 school year for the 2020-21 school year.

In Mississippi, schools and districts receive a grade of A-F under the accountability system. The grade reflects their performance in areas such as student achievement, student growth, graduation rate and participation rate, which measures the percentage of students who participate in statewide testing.

Based on a 2013 law called the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, third graders in Mississippi public schools must pass a reading test to continue to fourth grade. And high schoolers take tests in Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History designed to determine whether students have the knowledge and skills needed to graduate.

“I believe this needs to be a year of grace. Our schools, our teachers, and our children are under a lot of pressure about this, but knowing we have not had a standard way of instructing children — to hold children accountable, I do not feel is fair,” Wright said during a Senate education committee hearing in Jackson.

State testing will still continue this year, however, in order to assess the impact of COVID-19 on student learning and meet federal requirements.

The Legislature or Gov. Tate Reeves, via an executive order, would have to act to adopt these recommendations as they are all currently required by law.

If this happens, it would be the second school year in which districts retain 2018-19 ratings. State testing was cancelled last spring because of the pandemic, which meant there were no test results to base 2019-20 accountability ratings on. As a result, the Mississippi State Board of Education allowed all school districts to retain whatever rating they had from the previous school year.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

Dept. of Education says passing requirements for some state tests should be waived

by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today
January 6, 2021

<h1>Dept. of Education says passing requirements for some state tests should be waived</h1> <p class="byline">by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today <br />January 6, 2021</p> <p>State testing will continue this year, but State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said Wednesday she recommends waiving the passing requirements for the statewide third grade reading test and high school end-of-course tests.</p> <p>The department is also recommending schools and districts retain their letter grade from the 2018-19 school year for the 2020-21 school year.</p> <p>In Mississippi, schools and districts receive a grade of A-F under the accountability system. The grade reflects their performance in areas such as student achievement, student growth, graduation rate and participation rate, which measures the percentage of students who participate in statewide testing.</p> <p>Based on a 2013 law called the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, third graders in Mississippi public schools must pass a reading test to continue to fourth grade. And high schoolers take tests in Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History designed to determine whether students have the knowledge and skills needed to graduate.</p> <p>"I believe this needs to be a year of grace. Our schools, our teachers, and our children are under a lot of pressure about this, but knowing we have not had a standard way of instructing children — to hold children accountable, I do not feel is fair," Wright said during a Senate education committee hearing in Jackson.</p> <p>State testing will still continue this year, however, in order to assess the impact of COVID-19 on student learning and meet federal requirements.</p> <p>The Legislature or Gov. Tate Reeves, via an executive order, would have to act to adopt these recommendations as they are all currently required by law.</p> <p>If this happens, it would be the second school year in which districts retain 2018-19 ratings. State testing was cancelled last spring because of the pandemic, which meant there were no test results to base 2019-20 accountability ratings on. As a result, the Mississippi State Board of Education allowed all school districts to retain whatever rating they had from the previous school year.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2021/01/06/mde-says-passing-requirements-for-some-state-tests-should-be-waived/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=975609&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

1