Mississippi students’ state test scores have increased in nearly all grade levels since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Donna H. Boone, chief academic officer at the Mississippi Department of Education, said Mississippi’s quick return to the classroom after the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced test scores.
“After COVID, some states continued to do online learning, and Mississippi did not,” Boone said. “We were back in school. We had some hiccups along the way because of quarantines and all of that first year. But we went back to school.”
Boone recalled her personal experience as superintendent of the Forrest County Agricultural School District during a post-pandemic school year.
“We were holding the same standards for our students to meet as we did before,” Boone said. “And then from the department’s perspective all of the support that we provide, such as literacy coaches and digital learning coaches, we help school districts that had gotten devices during the pandemic to continue to be able to use the technology we provided all of those supporters.”
Boone said that despite the hardships and challenges faced in the 2020-2021 school year, the test scores reflected the perseverance and determination of both students and instructors.
“We just released our test scores at our last state board meeting and our proficiency has increased across the board,” Boone said. “Our third grade rate – we have also improved in those scores.”
Tenette Smith, executive director of elementary education and reading for the Mississippi Department of Education, believes the increase in test scores is related to preventative measures implemented during the pandemic, such as online learning.
“Years ago, we recognized that we needed to invest in preventative measures,” Smith said. “So, it was more about prevention and intervention than retention with our third-grade summative reading assessment.”
Even with the measures taken during the pandemic to keep students safe and healthy, Smith expressed her belief that sometimes students need to be held back a grade in order to ensure that they truly understand the material they were taught by their teachers.
“As a matter of fact, according to a more recent study out of Boston, those kids who were retained after taking third grade assessment did better in middle school than some of the kids who really barely passed the third grade reading assessment and were promoted online,” Smith said.
Mississippi K-12 students earned all-time high test scores in mathematics, English language arts, science and U.S. history in the 2022-2023 school year.
Janice Nicholson, head of curriculum, instruction and special education at Mississippi State University’s College of Education, praised the determination of educators to teach students the educational skills they will need later in life.
“[We have] got to give credit to the teachers and the school administrators for implementing a plan to help students increase in these academic areas,” Nicholson said.
Most college curriculum requires a basic understanding of core academic subjects for students to develop proper study habits, problem-solving skills, media literacy, intellectual skills and ethical work behavior through their studies.
“Well, those are your three areas — your reading, math and science and history are three critical areas for any kind of success in the work world, success in college,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson believes that the students who have benefited from the increases in academic scores have the potential for brighter futures.
“I think it will have a positive impact on Mississippi as well as other areas if these students can graduate and decide to go to states other than Mississippi,” Nicholson said.
However, Nicholson mentioned that she would prefer to keep that potential within the state.
“I think our challenge is going to be to try and keep them at home,” Nicholson said.