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State board removes U.S. history test from graduation and updates accountability rules
Summary
The Mississippi State Board of Education voted June 19 to eliminate the U.S. history end‑of‑course assessment as a statewide graduation requirement and to remove it from the accountability calculation, redirecting its weight into the new Mississippi readiness index and approving related business‑rule changes.
The Mississippi State Board of Education on June 19 voted to remove the U.S. history end‑of‑course assessment as a statewide graduation requirement and to eliminate the test’s use in the state accountability system, moving its points to the Mississippi readiness index.
Board staff said the department received 44 public comments during the rulemaking period on the proposal: 20 in support, 16 opposed, three neutral and five off topic. Miss Clemens, a staff member who presented the item, said the department’s recommendation remained to eliminate the test from both graduation requirements and accountability after review of the comments.
The change does not remove U.S. history as a course requirement. ‘‘It just removes the test,’’ Miss Clemens said when Board member Mister Miller asked for confirmation that U.S. history remains a Carnegie unit in the 24 credits required for graduation. Miss Clemens added that local school districts will still provide formative and summative classroom assessments and that MDE has informally discussed releasing the department’s item bank to districts that want to build local assessments from state items.
Board members also approved a package of business‑rule changes to the statewide accountability system that will take effect with the coming school year. The revisions formalize a ‘‘readiness index’’ that recognizes a wider range of postsecondary and career measures — including ACT super scores, ACT WorkKeys bronze and platinum levels, diploma endorsements and other credentials — and clarify which students are included via a senior‑snapshot enrollment rule. Staff said using senior snapshot and expanded completion status data will include some students who previously were not captured in readiness calculations, such as students who drop out late in the cohort.
Board members discussed how adding students who drop out after junior year could affect school scores because the newly included students may lack positive outcomes; staff replied that the new measures will be set with new standards and that the department will analyze this year’s data to model impacts before full implementation. The board asked districts to submit this year’s relevant data (SAT, ACT, ASVAB, WorkKeys and endorsements) so MDE can run impact analyses and identify technical issues.
The motion to eliminate the U.S. history assessment and adopt the related business‑rule revisions passed with one recorded nay; the board chair noted, "1 nay. Thank you, Miss Barrett." The board approved the broader accountability business rules in a separate motion later in the meeting.
