JACKSON, Miss. – A new five year plan revealed by the Mississippi Board of Education Thursday morning aims to enhance the achievement level of all Mississippi students through evaluating and changing current policies.
Goals outlined by the plan include:
- All Students Proficient and Showing Growth in All Assessed Areas
- Every Student Graduates High School and is Ready for College and Career
- Every Child Has Access to a High-Quality Early Childhood Program
- Every School Has Effective Teachers and Leaders
- Every Community Effectively Using a World-Class Data
In order to grow student proficiency the board plans to implement a required reading assessment for all elementary teachers and add to licensing for Special Education teachers and early childhood teachers. Another strategy is to use the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE) Early Warning System to intervene with students needing help and providing them with academic coaches. They also want to strengthen community involvement at lower performing schools.
For students that continue on to college, the board aims to have fewer Mississippi students taking remedial courses. To do this they plan on expanding coursework opportunities and advanced placement classes for students, as well as evaluating current pathways for graduation so they can explore other options. They also plan to establish a statewide Career Readiness Taskforce.
Providing pre-kindergarten classes for children across the state is another goal by the Mississippi Board of Education. To do this, they would like staff an early childhood department at the MDE, and explore other ways to retrieve funds for early childhood programs.
To make sure schools have effective teachers and leaders the board plans on implementing a system for better evaluating educators. There are also plans for a superintendent and principal academy and plans to add more instructional coaches at low-performing schools.
Finally, the board would like to improve current data systems at schools that can be accessed in real time and hire a chief information officer to be in charge of those systems. They plan on using the enhanced data system to measure data supporting student achievement and use that data to drive all future decisions.
