Published: November 24, 2009 10:09 am      

School districts ratings released; KHS given Star status, Ethel named Successful

Months after the Mississippi Department of Education released the results of the state-wide testing, Kosciusko City School District and Attala County School District now have received their new labels.

Schools and districts are now labeled from highest to lowest: Star School, High Performing, Successful, Academic Watch, Low Performing, At-Risk of Failing and Failing.

KCSD was labeled Successful with Kosciusko High School being named a Star school, and KJHS and KUES as Successful.

“We are extremely proud of what they have done at the high school, KCSD Superintendent Dr. Tony McGee said. “There are few star schools in the state.”

KHS is among 34 other schools being named Star.

McGee added that both the Upper and Jr. High missed being a high-performing school by a mere fraction.

“We are working hard everyday to get back to the top,” McGee said.

Ethel High School received the highest rating of the ACSD with a Successful label while Greenlee Elementary School was named At-Risk of Failing and McAdams High School and Long Creek Elementary both were labeled Academic Watch. The district as a whole was named Academic Watch.

After months of being able to study the testing results and the mathematic equation to discover the label of the schools, ACSD Superintendent Larry Stevens said they knew that Greenlee would be the lowest of the schools due to their quality of distribution index. QDI is the point system used to label the school.

“The biggest thing is that the teachers are teaching what’s on the test,” Stevens said. “Naturally we want our schools to be better achieving.”

ACSD is one of 37 school districts labeled Academic Watch.