Vicksburg, Miss. – The Vicksburg Warren School District (VWSD) retains a “B” rating for its performance in the 2022-23 school year as the Mississippi State Board of Education approved official grades for all Mississippi schools and districts on Thursday, Sept. 28. 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 2022-23 school year.
“We are proud of the hard work our teachers, students, and staff put into achieving excellence on the state tests. Our principals, district leaders, and school board members have done an outstanding job of supporting learning in our district, and it shows in our great results. Thank you to our community partners and families who support our district; we could not be successful without your support.” said Superintendent Dr. Tori Holloway.
Recent innovative changes include:
● Expanding our Pre-K program from 4 to 17 classrooms, so that every family has the
opportunity to enroll their young children in early education and give their child a head
start to learning.
● Building relevancy into our high school models through the creation of the Vicksburg Warren
College and Career Academies. This model allows all high school students to understand why
they are learning specific skills and how they will apply the skill in the career path of their choice.
● Visioning with students well-beyond their walk across the stage at graduation. Students prepare for the path they want to take after high school - enroll in college, enlist in the military, become
employed with industry credentials they earned in high school, or become an entrepreneur.
● Implementing a framework and system of collaboration amongst building leaders and district
level administrators to achieve wildly important goals.
● Increasing the number of students who understand how to set, track, and achieve academic and personal goals.
● Forming strategic partnerships with employers, universities and community colleges so our
students are better prepared for next steps after graduation.
● Investing $143 million dollars in important upgrades to our facilities across the district to make buildings safe and to support the great work that was already happening on the inside.
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) emphasizes the importance of looking at the individual components that contribute to school and district grades to get a more complete picture of student achievement, particularly student proficiency levels. Mississippi’s school grading system considers many indicators, including how many students score in the
top two levels on the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) tests for English Language Arts and Mathematics in grades 3-8 and high school, whether students score the same or higher on state tests each year as new content is introduced, and whether students are graduating within four years of entering the ninth grade.
The system also factors in performance on the ACT and advanced high school courses and how well schools are helping English learners and the lowest-achieving students make progress toward proficiency. To learn more about Mississippi’s A-F accountability system, visit mdek12.org.