2015/01/08 – Mississippi’s K-12 public education ranked last nationally in an annual report released Thursday that gave the state an F for academic achievement and a D+ each in finance and chance for success for an overall grade of D.

The national average is a C, according to the 2015 edition of Education Week’s Quality Counts report, a comprehensive assessment of educational performance indicators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Despite its poor overall ranking, Mississippi did earn a B for its early childhood education enrollment, placing second nationally for Head Start enrollment and third nationally for kindergarten enrollment and availability of full-time kindergarten.

That’s compared to the national average of D+ in early childhood education enrollment.

“It’s good evaluators looked at enrollment numbers, but it is equally important that the programs for those children are of high quality, which is a priority of the Mississippi Board of Education,” said State Superintendent of Education Cary Wright in a press release.

Mississippi has ranked at or near the bottom in previous editions of the Quality Counts reports, as well. This is the 19th year of the annual “State of the States” report, which this time differs in that grades reflect performance in just three areas instead of several others as in the past.

Among those areas, the state scored lowest in academic achievement. This category looks at graduation rates and student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and advanced placement exams.

The report found that Mississippi students scored well below the national average in the 2013 NAEP scores for 4th and 8th grade reading and math. It also found that less than 4 percent of Mississippi students who took an AP exam scored a passing grade of 3 or higher compared to 25.7 percent nationwide.

“We know that many factors influence student achievement, and we hope the leadership in our state and communities will make decisions that will provide better opportunities for students to take advanced placement courses,” Wright said.

Source: Emily Le Coz 

The Clarion Ledger