Mississippi schools and districts will face higher standards for earning accountability grades beginning with the 2025-26 school year, the Mississippi Department of Education said. Accountability grades to be released in fall 2026 will establish a new baseline and will not be directly comparable to grades from previous years because benchmarks have been raised.
The department warned many schools and districts could receive lower letter grades than they earned in 2024-25 even if student performance on state assessments remains the same or improves. State law requires accountability standards to increase when 75 percent of students are proficient or when 65 percent of schools or districts earn a grade of B or higher, the department said.
State officials said that milestone was reached in 2023, when 74 percent of schools and 71 percent of districts earned an A or B, compared with 37 percent for both in 2016. “Mississippi students and schools have made extraordinary progress, and that progress is exactly why state law requires us to raise the bar,” State Superintendent of Education Lance Evans said in a statement.
The department said it worked for two years with an Accountability Task Force, a Technical Advisory Committee and a special Standard Setting Task Force to revise the system. The Mississippi State Board of Education approved the updated standards in November 2025; accountability grades are based on multiple measures including statewide assessment results in English language arts, math and science, English learner progress, advanced course and career and technical education performance, and graduation rates.
Among the changes, schools and districts will need to earn more points to receive each letter grade. A new Mississippi Readiness Index will replace previous college- and career-readiness measures for high schools and districts and will include ACT, SAT, ACT WorkKeys and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, along with Advanced Placement, dual credit and dual enrollment, career and technical education program outcomes, industry certifications, diploma endorsements and on-time and five-year graduation rates. The department also said the U.S. history assessment will no longer count in accountability measures and annual goals for English learner progress have been updated.
State assessment results for the 2025-26 school year are expected in August 2026, with accountability grades and a component breakdown to follow in fall 2026. Evans said families and communities should look beyond the overall letter grade when evaluating school performance under the new system. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
