Commission on School Accreditation approves 2024–25 district performance classifications

The Mississippi Commission on School Accreditation voted Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, to approve district performance classifications for the 2024–25 school year following an internal-review report from the Mississippi Department of Education presented during a special-call teleconference meeting.

The action finalizes preliminary accountability results and authorizes the Mississippi Department of Education to publish the full dataset for public access. Associate Superintendent Alan Barrow presented the internal-review findings to the commission and outlined the standard-setting schedule that will determine cut scores used in the next accountability cycle.

Barrow told the commission that the internal review committee met Sept. 4, 2025, to consider requests from districts to review preliminary accountability results under accreditation policy 3.1.3. "According to accreditation policy 3.1.3, which provides for requests for internal review of the preliminary accountability results," Barrow said. He said the committee included at least four MDE staff members and one external member and received requests from 26 districts. Information containing personally identifiable data was redacted before review, Barrow said, and the committee either granted or denied each request according to the department's business rules. The committee communicated its decisions to districts on Sept. 9, 2025.

Barrow summarized statewide results drawn from school year 2024–25 data, which the department uses to assign accountability measures for the 2025–26 academic year. He said graduation rates included in this accountability cycle are lagged one year and reflect spring 2024 graduates, and that the state saw a plateauing of proficiency rates at the aggregate level after earlier pandemic-driven gains. He also said the department recorded modest increases in reading growth, acceleration in college- and career-readiness metrics in some areas, and gains in English-learner progress.

The commission heard that the percentage of districts and schools rated C or higher rose in prior years but dipped slightly this year. Barrow said the department has initiated standard-setting discussions with its accountability task force and held a standard-setting committee meeting on Sept. 9; additional meetings and impact analyses are scheduled in October, with the department aiming to publish new cut scores for the 2025–26 standards-setting by October 2025. The department plans to run the 2026 accountability system using the newly established standards to show what grades would have been assigned for the prior year under those cuts.

Barrow noted several technical details presented in the slides: the department counts 10 charter schools in the state within the district list; the statewide school count reported was 850 for this cycle; district composite scores are derived from weighted components (elementary/middle components use a 700-point scale; most high-school composites are presented on a 1,000-point scale). He told commissioners that the full accountability files and a searchable public dashboard on the Mississippi Succeeds report card would be posted after the meeting. "We will have all of the data posted after the board meeting today for the current accountability," Barrow said.

After presentation and brief opportunity for questions, a commissioner moved to approve the districts' full performance classifications for school year 2024–25. The commission approved the motion by voice vote; the transcript records commissioners responding "aye." The motion carried and the meeting proceeded to adjournment.

The department's next steps, as described in the presentation, are to continue the standard-setting process in October, publish finalized cut scores for the 2025–26 accountability system, and post the detailed district- and school-level accountability files on the MDE website and the Mississippi Succeeds report card.

The commission's action on Sept. 25 finalizes the 2024–25 classifications for public release and sets the timetable for applying forthcoming standard-setting decisions to future accountability reporting.