Oxford, Lafayette School Districts Both Receive ‘A’ Grades

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Oxford and Lafayette County can now both bost they have two Grade A school districts.

The Mississippi Department of Education has released the official accountability ratings for schools and districts across the state and Oxford School District and Lafayette County School District both received an “A” rating.

Three OSD elementary schools hold three of the top 12 slots in the state – Bramlett Elementary, Della Davidson Elementary and Oxford Elementary. These elementary schools also are ranked 1, 2, and 3 for growth in math in the state. OSD also boasted the highest College and Career Readiness percentage statewide.

“This tells part of a picture of what’s going on in our schools, it doesn’t tell the whole picture though and that’s why we are working on Portrait of Graduate to help develop those skills that aren’t just about proficiency and growth,” said OSD Superintendent Brian Harvey. “We are actively looking at some other indicators that would show how successful our students can be in the future.”

Mississippi’s A-F grading system measures what overall student performance and their progress from year to year, graduation rates, and college and career readiness.

Bramlett, Oxford and Della Davidson elementary schools all earned an “A” grade. Oxford Intermediate and Oxford Middle schools earned “B” grades, missing the “A” mark by just a few points; however, both schools showed improvement over last year’s scores. Oxford High School earned an “A” grade.

“Growth of our lower students is something we have to improve on and we’re working very hard to do that,” Harvey said. “I think having highest college and career readiness in the state is worthy of celebration by all of our teachers,” he said. That doesn’t just happen at the high school. It’s a district-wide effort.”

The 2017-2018 statewide accountability showed OSD was:
* 68.5 percent of students are proficient in reading
* 61.9 percent of students are proficient in math
* 73 percent of OSD students are proficient in history
* 80.3 percent of students are proficient in science

In Lafayette County, the Upper and Lower Elementary and High School earned an “A” grade, and the middle school earned a “B” grade.

“We are very, very excited,” said LCSD Superintendent Adam Pugh. “This is something we’ve been working very hard toward. We have really focused on learning. Not on what we’re teaching but what are the students learning. Focusing on students and the individual student and trying to meet their needs the best we can.”

Lafayette Middle School missed getting an “A” grade by less than 2 points; however, the school increased its overall points by 27 since last year.

“We’re going to keep working on getting all of our schools an ‘A’,” Pugh said. “But the Middle School teachers and staff are working very hard to improve their scores and them coming up 27 points help the district’s overall score to achieve our ‘A’ rating as a district.”

The LCSD statewide accountability scores showed:
* 48.7 percent of students are proficient in reading
* 60.1 percent of students are proficient in math
* 58.7 percent of students are proficient in history
* 80.4 percent of students are proficient in science