How are Mississippi's public schools and school districts rated? By something called the state “Accountability Model,” and for most normal human beings, this model is confusing to the point of being laughable.
Measuring by college readiness, Mississippi's public educated students rank lowest in the nation. This is one of a series of posts exploring instances of inflated school ratings within Mississippi's state-run ratings system. The Mississippi Department of Education has mislead taxpayers with false information about the quality of the state's public schools.
The Mississippi Board of Education maintains educational standards in the state of Mississippi. A separate office overseen by the Board, called the Office of Educational Accountability, is supposed to serve as a watchdog over the Department of Education, which is lead by the State Superintendent of Education. With these two entities (the Board and the Office of Educational Accountability) lies the responsibility of holding schools accountable to state academic standards.
The Office of Educational Accountability administers the Accountability Model, a formula designed to assess school performance. The Accountability Model assesses three areas: academic achievement, growth, and high school graduation rates. These three elements combine in a series of complex equations to determine school ratings.
Most school superintendents, principals, and teachers do not understand the way these three factors are assessed and weighted to evaluate their classrooms and schools, even though their livelihoods depend on their performance per the model.
Here is a graphic from a 2012 Mississippi Department of Education document explaining the Accountability Model:
Are you confused yet?
The Model's Quality Distribution Index (QDI) portion, which measures achievement, alone is challenging. Its formula is:
(Not
to mention the Accountability Model factors in a number of tests:
Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2) Grades 3-8 Language Arts and Math; Subject Area Testing Program, Second Edition (SATP2) which includes Algebra I, Biology I, English II Multiple Choice, and U.S. History; Mississippi Science Test (MST) Grades 5 and 8; and Alternate Assessment (MAAECF) Language Arts, Math, and Science Grades 5, 8, and 12.)
Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2) Grades 3-8 Language Arts and Math; Subject Area Testing Program, Second Edition (SATP2) which includes Algebra I, Biology I, English II Multiple Choice, and U.S. History; Mississippi Science Test (MST) Grades 5 and 8; and Alternate Assessment (MAAECF) Language Arts, Math, and Science Grades 5, 8, and 12.)
Even
the graduation component, which sounds like it might be pretty
straightforward, gets confusing, as various student statuses are
weighted differently for the High School Completion Index (HSCI)
score:
State school Board member Bill Jones said in a September 2011 meeting: “Well, our accountability model might in theory be a good model, if we knew what the model was. But without anybody knowing what the model is, it's subject to, one, deception and manipulation and paying for political favors.”
See
the Oct. 28 post, "Surprise:
Cronyism and fraud in education,"
for the transcript and audio recording of that meeting.
Amy McCullough is a freelance journalist who has donated this material to Jackson Jambalaya in memory of Charlie Evers, who passed away on Aug. 26, 2013.
7 comments:
um, don't you think that this mumbo-jumbo is intentional? It is real sad to see (in my lifetime)the total collapse of the public school system. It makes me mad on the other hand that I am FORCED to pay for it...and the very people that ran it into the ditch think things are just fine.... disgusting.
I would not send my cats to a public school. It irritates me that my tax dollars go to these schools. Actually I'm still trying to figure out why I pay school taxes as I do not have nor have I ever had a child in a public school. Even when I graduated in 1974 JPS was starting to suck big time.
Good post, Amy. Goes in hand with post KF had done when charter schools and public schools were being discussed. The mapping of where-the-money-goes is dumbfounding.
I agree that I would not send my kids to most public schools in MS. However I wouldn't send my kids to most Private schools in MS either. There are so many crappy, tin-shack private schools in this state that think by slapping the word "Academy" on their title, it makes them a good school.
How exactly are Private schools rated?
"How exactly are Private schools rated?"
In the case of St. Andrew's, 18th in the nation. Thanks for asking :-)
Just to follow up on what Anonymous said, 18 percent of St. Andrews students were National Merit semifinalists this year. That's the highest percentage in the state and I dare say one of the highest percentages of any school in the nation.
It's easier to qualify for NM semifinalist in Mississippi than in most states, but this is still an unbelievable performance. I think that there were 136 NM semifinalists in Mississippi, so 13 percent of the state's NM semifinalists come from St. Andrews.
For private schools, I believe MAIS also does academic accreditation in addition to the sports stuff. For private schools that are not MAIS, there are other accreditation groups, like Southern Association of Independent Schools. Some of these accreditations are rigorous, and some are not. I don't know for sure, but I would assume there are some private schools in Mississippi that have no accreditation.
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