The Mississippi Department of Education released 2009 state school test results today showing slight gains in some areas and decreases in others. The 2008-2009 school year was the second year during which students took a more rigorous series of exams, the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2 in middle school and a revised Subject Area Testing Program in high school. Interim State Superintendent of Education John Jordan said in a statement that the results indicated that there was "still much work to be done."
"This was the second year for our students to take the more rigorous assessment to match the curriculum and the results are in line with what we have expected," Jordan said. "There were improvements in the performance of students in most grades and from one grade to the next for students taking the MCT2. At the high school level, there was little change in the performance of students."
Jackson Public Schools improved its performance on the eighth grade MCT2 in both math and language arts. 36.9 percent of Jackson eighth-graders scored proficient or advanced on the language arts section, up from 30.5 percent in 2008. The percentage of eighth-graders scoring proficient or advanced on the math section increased slightly from 48.5 to 49.3.
JPS third-graders performed slightly worse this year, however. The percentage of Jackson third-graders scoring proficient or advanced on the language arts MCT2 dropped from 46.6 percent to 44.9 percent. On the math section, 51.8 percent scored advanced or proficient, down from 56.3 percent in 2008. Those declines mirrored statewide averages, though, which also declined slightly for third-graders.
Complete data for school districts and individual schools are available on the Mississippi Department of Education Web site
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