Jackson Jambalaya

I nearly always chuckle when MDE press releases posted on this site do not include: "This is a paid advertisement."

2:45 I'm guessing you are a miserable person. Am I right?

MDE: congrats on the improvements. Still a loooong ways to go but looking better overall.

2:57 thanks MDE employee. With those stats, y'all all should be fired.

Bad news #NOPlanBill. The narrative just took a major broadside hit. Consistent improvement growth all on Tate Reeves' watch. Call Compretta and find out what soundbites Hood's campaign wants you to use to counter this good news.

They don't even know how many teachers they have.

@2:45 I work in the MDE.....the numbers are BOGUS you idiot twit. Why do you accept everything you're told? Especially by an organization that hemorrhages money and teaches nothing but entitlement to its youth? The students don't even really have to come to school, and are allowed to bully teachers daily without consequence....and you wonder why there's a teacher shortage. The entire organization is a fraud.....it is nothing more than an engine of redistribution milling billions of dollars of taxes garnished from apathetic Mississippians as a slush fund for the inner circle. My friends in "higher" education say it's not much different there.

Yes, congratulations are in order provided the scores are up and they didn't dumb down the test.

Seems that instead of improving skills in Mississippi they just lower the standards.

The only reason there was an improvement was because the last several years, the results were abysmal. LOOK AT THE PAST RESULTS.

Heard that MHSAA is going to widen homeplate on all public school baseball fields. This will make it easier for our babies to throw strikes and be successful athletes. MLB hasn’t responded. The first year it will go from 17” wide to 17.5”. It will go to 18” if our pitchers don’t have better stats after next year.

How did JPS fare now that Kellogg is their daddy?

Allow me to provide an analogy:

While everybody else around me is running a 4.5 minute mile, I've just broken my earlier record of 10 minutes and have run 9.6.

Or to put it another way: I've been making F's on my report card but just brought home a D! Time to party! Dad's buying!

Meanwhile: Mississippi's Director of the State Department of Education is paid more than her counterparts in 49 other states.

Bonus Question: How many states are there?

Extra Points: Who the hell, specifically, is responsible for hiring this woman?

@4:09 Mark Twain said it well:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."

6:32 am You really didn't read the entire article from the trade publication did you?
Or did you just add 9 States for jollies and overlook both how that conclusion was reached and how our State law that made it possible?

4:09 pm If you are what you claim, then you can tell us specifically how the numbers come to be bogus . Where is the slush fund? There has to be a " name" for it and a bank account and a source for the funds. You should be able to show how funds are misused. I don't know why you and your disgruntled friends work for a bogus group if you believe what you say but " out" them. Become a whistle blower. For now, all you've persuaded me is that you don't think you are " appreciated" in your current job and no one see how smart you think you are. Maybe they just see your bad attitude and that's the reason you aren't given the kudos you think you deserve.

All these mouth breathers on here working so hard to diminish the good news of continued improvement went to private schools and/or send their kids to private schools. They don't want to see or hear evidence contrary to what they believe is a good financial bet on their choice of education. Move along.

I have no interest in trashing MDE or any particular official.

But "above average improvement" is just political talking-point B.S.

As noted above, the fat kid who huffs his way to a 20 minute mile, besting his previous 24 minute mile, is improving much faster than the state champ who spends months shaving two seconds off his 4:19 time.

But the fat kid isn't making any track team, and the "improving" students aren't attracting any businesses or economic development. (Although at least the fat kid, unlike Mississippi students, can point to an objective time as opposed to a malleable, game-able test.)

Basically, unless your talking points are making apples-to-apples comparisons with competitor states like Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, they're meaningless -- effectively, propaganda.

Anyone in the MDE will tell you that the entire thing is a cabal of bullshit artists.....and higher education is no better. MDE and the IHL are trying DESPERATELY to hang on to numbers that show "improvement" no matter how ridiculously they frame it. Today, an email went out from the IHL basically qualifying a great many "tech" hours as acceptable into upper academic degree programs....mind boggling. Just one example of how MS educational standards are falling, falling, falling....all in the name of "completions" and at all costs, regardless of the actual hours put in, or the type of work you do, or the treatment of actual young people. The entire system is teetering on collapse because the enrollment numbers aren't there, and they have to do something to maintain the appearance of "success" regardless if anyone's even attending or completing actual hours. It's all a shell game.....IHL letter is below...always framed as "opportunities"....which means for students to complete, while doing far less than what was once expected. The IHL is a disgrace.

Good morning, All,

I wanted to let you know that IHL passed a policy today that allows for the creation of an applied baccalaureate degree at each of the public universities. This degree program builds upon the Mississippi community colleges’ Associate of Applied Science and 30/45/60 stackable credential structure. Through this degree program, universities will be able to accept 45 technical credit hours, and the 15 general education hours may be counted as half of the general education core requirements. So, all 60 hours for the Associate of Applied Science will be applied to the degree requirements for the 120-credit hour applied baccalaureate degree at the universities. Now that the policy has been approved by the IHL Board of Trustees, each university will begin the process of planning their degree programs.

Please share this information with the community colleges. I’m sure our universities will be reaching out to the community colleges to discuss opportunities, but if a community college administrator is interested in making connections to begin the process, the chief academic officer at each university would be the appropriate contact. Also, I am available to answer any questions about the IHL policy.


Thanks,

Casey

Dr. Casey C. Prestwood
Assistant Commissioner for Policy and Strategic Initiatives
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning
3825 Ridgewood Road
Jackson, MS 39211
601-432-6458

A totally useless degree.