For the second consecutive year, the Vicksburg Warren School District (VWSD) has been awarded an overall “B” rating by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).

“The Vicksburg Warren School District retains a ‘B’ rating for its performance in the 2023-24 school year as the Mississippi State Board of Education approved official grades for all Mississippi schools and districts on Tuesday, Sept. 17,” VWSD said in a statement this week. 

Mississippi’s schools and districts are graded on an A-F scale. These grades are part of the state’s required accountability system. VWSD’s grade is largely due to the continued progress students made during the 2023-24 school year, VWSD officials said.

“I am incredibly proud to announce that the Vicksburg Warren School District has once again maintained its ‘B’ rating, which reflects the hard work and dedication of our students, teachers, staff, board members, and community partners,” VWSD Superintendent Dr. Tori Holloway said. “This achievement is a testament to the commitment we all share in providing a high-quality education that prepares our students for success both inside and outside the classroom.” 

Holloway also pointed to this year’s results as marking the first time in years the system has not had a school with an “F” rating. That mark is also the first in Holloway’s tenure as superintendent, which began in May 2023.

“For the first time in, someone said it’s been at least 10 years, we don’t have a failing school,” Holloway said. “To get those schools where we are today, we did have several schools improve and we did have several schools to show a slight decrease. We’ve met and had talks with the principals and we’ve come up with a plan to get back to where they were prior to this year.”

While not every school in the district moved up on the state’s grading scale, Holloway said both Vicksburg Junior High School and Warren Central Junior High School, which each received “F” grades following the 2022-23 school year, have improved to “D” grade. Holloway pointed out each school was “close” to achieving “C” grades.

And Holloway said the district is working to keep those grades moving in the right directions, while putting in place plans to improve areas where it saw backsliding.

“The good thing about getting test data in – and we’re getting it earlier now than we did in prior  years – is it gives us an opportunity to develop a plan and focus in on where we need to improve,” he said. “We did not do as well this year as we have in previous years with our students who need extra help, so that will definitely be an area of focus for us this year. And I appreciate our teachers, because what they have done since they’ve seen that data is they are zeroing in on making sure the students who need the most help academically, that they’re going to get that this year. They take a lot of pride in their work and they were not satisfied with that decrease.”

Holloway said, while the district maintained its “B” grade, it also saw a drop in overall points.

“We had more students scoring proficient, but we didn’t do as well with students who need the most help,” he said. “As a district, we did decrease seven or eight points.”

According to MDE, the components of the state’s accountability system are based on state and federal law and State Board policy and include:  student proficiency and growth rates in ELA (English Language Arts) and mathematics in grades 3-8; growth of the lowest performing 25% of students in ELA and mathematics; science proficiency in grades 5 and 8; English Learner progress toward becoming proficient in the English language; performance on the ACT and high school Algebra I, English II, Biology and U.S. History assessments; student participation and performance in advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education programs and dual credit/dual enrollment courses; and four-year graduation rate. 

Holloway said he was particularly encouraged by the district maintaining a “B” grade following the implementation of new ELA standards.

“We adopted a new ELA curriculum last year. That’s a huge deal when you’ve adopted a new curriculum and you’re still able to maintain your level of performance,” he said. “That just shows how hard our teachers work.”

A full breakdown of VWSD’s 2023-24 results, including the above MDE components, may be found online at https://msrc.mdek12.org/.