The Mississippi Department of Education issued the following statement.
The Mississippi State Board of Education (SBE) has approved plans for Mannsdale Upper Elementary in the Madison County School District to be Mississippi’s newest School of Innovation and for Pascagoula-Gautier School District and Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District to be Mississippi’s newest Districts of Innovation for 2022-23.
The SBE also renewed District of Innovation status for Booneville School District and Grenada School District, which both received the status in 2016.
Mississippi will have 10 total Districts of Innovation in 2022-23. The other six are Hinds County School District, Oxford School District, Rankin County School District, Tupelo Public School District, Corinth School District and Gulfport School District.
Legislation passed in 2015 allows school districts and schools within a district to apply for District of Innovation or School of Innovation status, which enables the district or school to request exemptions from certain state regulations to improve student achievement. Through the innovative model, districts and schools have flexibility in areas such as seat time and teacher certification to allow for innovative scheduling and instruction.
Districts of Innovation and Schools of Innovation are intended to expand learning choices, implement rigorous standards, reduce achievement gaps, reduce student remediation post-graduation, increase student engagement and increase the number of students who are ready for college and/or career.
Mannsdale Upper Elementary’s goals include investigating a learning community where the general education teacher is team-teaching with a gifted education teacher; to create a self-sustaining gardening program that teaches students the steps to building either a career or college major in farming, entrepreneurship, food services or business management; and to create a school structure where teachers are compensated for mentorship.
Pascagoula-Gautier School District’s goals include expanding its career academies while providing students with opportunities to take the ACT WorkKeys and helping students graduate with an associate’s degree and earn national certifications. Students in the district will have the opportunity to earn their LPN license before graduation.
Starkville
Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s goals include expanding its
career academy model to include all high school students and provide
preparation classes in elementary grades.
5 comments:
What this status amounts to is giving the school the ability to ignore the standardizing bureaucratic requirements of a central governmental authority and to instead offer parents an alternative choice about how their children are educated. Choice is good. So why dont we have more of it? Why do we insist on giving the government a monopoly in educating our children? Is government known for providing quality goods at low prices? NO.
Give parents a voucher and let them make their own choices. Let them hold schools accountable by voting with their children's feet. Not a good school? Leave and go to a better one -- public, private, or religious. Competition will improve quality and reduce cost. It always does.
Hinds County Schools says “welcome to the team”.
So they no have Vo-tech ? :)
We have a serious problem in schools not offering skills training. At some point in time we need qualified intelligent people to work with their hands and not have the idea that you need to get a degree in college to make a good living. I have skilled employees who make more than most college graduates. It takes time and money to cultivate this but an employer cannot depend on the educational system to teach certain aspects and I’m speaking of basic knowledge needed to perform certain tasks, not about certain aspects of a certain type of history that is pounded into their heads every waking moment. We have been surpassed by many nations in the skilled trades area and it has reared its ugly head and bit us right in the ass.
8:58 - Many public-school districts DO have strong Career Center Programs. I'm sorry you don't know that. You probably also don't know that (even) the scholars who attend private schools have a right to and CAN enroll in the public-school career programs. If only their peers and parents wouldn't shame them for accessing a trade course or two.
Meanwhile: 10:33 posted: "Competition will improve quality and reduce cost. It always does."
Well, for at least 57 years (1965), this state has had private and parochial schools scattered from Tupelo to Biloxi, Columbus to Greenville. That competition has done little to improve quality (coming from the public schools) and NOTHING to reduce costs. Shoving most of these JPS-type kids into other school districts (via vouchers) would only dilute the product coming out of those districts.
85% of a student's success in school (and life) is based on the first five years of his/her home life. Switching schools and dumping kids in alternate districts won't change that.
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