Understanding the Re-Setting of Cut Scores in Mississippi’s Accountability System, Part 1
By Rachel Canter
This post is the first of a three-part series to explain the conversation about re-setting cut scores in Mississippi’s accountability system and to discuss the implication of doing so. This series is written in as plain a language as possible. This first part provides background information on the A-F grading system. The next two parts will discuss setting cut scores and the proposed changes.
Background on A-F
Mississippi schools and districts are annually rated using an A-F accountability system, just like children receive a grade A, B, C, D, or F on their report cards. This grade is based on several components, including
- Proficiency (the percent of students who meet or exceed grade-level standards in English and math in grades 3-8 and in English, math, science, and social studies in high school);
- Growth of All Students (the percent of students who grow one level in English or math or who maintain a proficient or advanced level);
- Growth of the Lowest 25% (the percent of the lowest 25% of students who grow one level in English or math);
- College Readiness (the percent of students who meet college readiness benchmarks on the ACT);
- Acceleration (the percent of students taking and passing college-level or career certification courses); and
- Graduation (the percent of students who graduate in four years).
Schools and districts earn points on each of these components. These points are totaled and then compared to a list of scores to determine the school or district’s grade. The number that a school or district must reach to receive a higher grade—626 points for a district to receive a “B,” for example—is often referred to as the cut score. 2015-2016 district cut scores are as follows:
| Grade | Scores |
| A | 738 or above |
| B | 626 or above but below 738 |
| C | 552 or above but below 626 |
| D | 470 or above but below 552 |
| F | Below 470 |
When Mississippi adopted its A-F system in 2013-2014, it planned to phase in the system over three years by adding the Acceleration component in the final year (2015-2016). In those three years, Mississippi also changed its state test three times—first, we had MCT2, then PARCC, and finally MAP (now referred to as MAAP).
In 2014-2015, schools and districts were graded based on performance on the new PARCC test. The number of points schools could earn in the A-F system, though, did not change. Schools and districts could take a waiver if their grade dropped to retain a higher previous grade (either from 2012-2013 or 2013-2014). In 2015-2016, however, schools’ and districts’ new grades would “count” even if their grades worsened. 2015-2016 was also the year that the final component of the A-F system was used, increasing the number of points schools and districts could earn in the A-F system.
Because of the both the assessment and the final phase-in of the A-F system, the Mississippi Department of Education set new cut scores before the 2015-2016 grades were released in October 2016 to ensure that the system was fair. These cut scores were intended to remain the same for the next several school years so that schools and districts would always know their target. The current controversy is about whether these cut scores should change.
The next post will explain the process of setting cut scores.
Related Posts
By Grace Breazeale | Director of Research and K-12 Policy This week, the National Center for Education Statistics released 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) assessment results, commonly referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The assessment is administered across the nation every two years in grades 4 and 8. Unlike state-specific standardized tests, the NAEP […]
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part series on third grade literacy achievement. You can find the first part here. *** By Grace Breazeale | Director of Research and K-12 Policy In the first part of this series, we explored the effectiveness of the Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA) across Mississippi school districts, as well […]
Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a two-part series on the Literacy-Based Promotion Act. *** By Grace Breazeale | Director of Research and K-12 Policy Between 2013 and 2019, fourth grade reading scores on the nationwide NAEP test increased by ten points in Mississippi–a larger increase than in any other state during this time […]
By Toren Ballard For the second year in a row, results from the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) exams suggest that Mississippi is continuing to defy nationwide trends in educational achievement: proficiency levels across all subjects were at all-time highs in 2023, and Mississippi is now one of just two states nationwide to have exceeded its pre-pandemic proficiency […]
Editor’s Note: This blog post is in response to a column appearing in the LA Times titled “How Mississippi gamed its national reading test scores to produce ‘miracle gains.‘” We’re not going to link to it because we don’t believe it is worth your clicks; however, feel free to Google. *** This morning, I was […]
Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series of posts dedicated to K-12 education policy in Mississippi. *** By Grace Breazeale | Director of Research and K-12 Policy Mississippi’s high school graduation rate has steadily risen over the past five years, which would typically be a cause for celebration. But in this case, […]
Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series of posts dedicated to K-12 education policy in Mississippi. *** By Grace Breazeale | Director of Research and K-12 Policy In early 2021, the Mississippi Department of Education released its first-ever social-emotional learning (SEL) standards. The release of these standards was a positive step towards increasing […]
By Toren Ballard This fall, Mississippians received two widely divergent narratives about the state of public education post-COVID: On September 29, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released school and district accountability grades for the 2021-2022 school year, showing unprecedented improvement: 87% of districts were rated “C” or higher, up from 70% in 2019, the last time MDE […]
By Rachel Canter | Executive Director When I was a first year teacher, I asked my students a basic question about American history—“Why do we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday every year?”—as a way of introducing Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Without exception, the answer I got from every class was that […]
Today, we released a statement on American history from our Executive Director, Rachel Canter. In partnership with that statement, Mississippi First has developed the following principles for assessing curriculum-related legislation. These principles are based on our organizational values. We believe these principles are commonsense. In a recent nationwide poll of parents, large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats agreed […]
By Rachel Canter Yesterday, we did a thread to explain school grades. Here’s some additional information about growth because it is the hardest part to understand. Usually, when schoolwide proficiency goes up, growth will go up as well, BUT it is possible to have higher proficiency scores schoolwide from one year to the next and still have a […]
By Rachel Canter School grades came out unofficially yesterday, and we’re already seeing (sometimes uninformed) chatter about what they mean. Here are a few pointers: Our state accountability system is based mostly on how well kids do on their end-of-year tests. The end-of-year tests are given in reading and math to all kids in grades 3-8, […]