Ocean Springs is top Coast school district in 2018 state tests. See how the others ranked.

Many Mississippi school districts are seeing year-over-year improvements in assessment testing, with some Coast schools receiving high rankings.

The Mississippi Department of Education this month released the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program’s (MAAP) statewide assessment results for the 2017-18 school year. The MAAP testing system has been used in the state since 2016.

The tests measure progress of third- through eighth-graders in English Language Arts (ELA) and math, and high-schoolers in Algebra I and English II.

The statewide passing average improved from 36.7 percent in 2017 to 39.8 percent in 2018 in English, and from 38.6 percent to 43.9 percent on math assessments.

The MAAP assessment is scored on a scale of 1-5. Level 1, or “minimal,” is the lowest score on the test, meaning a student “inconsistently demonstrates the knowledge or skills that define basic-level performance.” The highest score is a Level 5, which means a student “consistently performs in a manner clearly beyond that required to be successful in the grade or course in the content area.”

Passing marks are considered a Level 3 and above — except for the 3rd Grade Reading Assessment, which was a Level 2 and above for the 2018 test. It will change to a three or above in 2019.

3rd grade reading gate scores by district

In the 2018 school year, an average of 5.4 percent of third-graders failed the reading test, and could not move on to fourth grade without a special exception. Under the 2019 standards, an average of 20.6 percent of students would not pass the test.

The first column shows the percentage of students who failed the 2017-18 MAAP third-grade reading gate by district. The second column shows the percentage of students who would fail under new 2019 guidelines.

Coast schools

Ocean Springs was among the top school districts in the state in both ELA and math, ranking fourth in both categories. Biloxi School District placed fifth in the state in math, and Long Beach and Pass Christian rounded out the top 10 in math at 8 and 9, respectively.

No Coast school districts were in the bottom 10 in either category, although more than half of Moss Point students tested received failing marks in third- and fifth-grade math and seventh-grade ELA.

On the third-grade MAAP reading assessment scores that were released in June, the Moss Point School District saw an increase of 16 percentage points in its passing rate.

Forty districts across the state had greater than 45 percent of all students scoring Level 4 or 5 in ELA, compared to 22 districts in 2017 and 14 in 2016. 52 districts had greater than 45 percent of all students scoring Level 4 or 5 in math, compared to 32 districts in 2017 and 15 in 2016.

High schools

In the English II assessment, Biloxi had the highest Level 5 scores with a rate of 31 percent of 406 students tested. Ocean Springs was close behind with Level 5 passing rate of 29.7 percent. Biloxi had 16.7 percent Level 5 English II students in 2017.

Moss Point had the highest rate of Level 1 students on the assessment at 11.30 percent. But that number is down from 18.8 percent in 2017. Moss Point also had 6.6 percent Level 5 students, an increase from 2017 when the school had only 3.5 percent.

In math, Biloxi again had the most Level 5 students with 32.2 percent. Pass Christian had 30.3 percent.

Grades 4-8 highlights

• In the fourth-grade ELA assessment, Ocean Springs Upper Elementary School led Coast schools with 18 percent Level 5 students.
  
  
• Gulfport fifth-graders led the Coast in ELA assessment with 11.8 percent Level 5 students.
  
  
• Two Coast schools scored above 30 percent on Level 5 for sixth-grade ELA — Biloxi and Ocean Springs.
  
  
• 15 Coast school districts had more than 10 percent students passing at Level 5 in seventh-grade math.

District passing rates in English

This table shows the overall average passing rate for each Coast district, as well as the state average, from third grade through high school on the ELA and English II tests.

District passing rates in math

This table shows the overall average passing rate for each Coast district, as well as the state average, from third grade through high school on the math and Algebra tests.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 5:00 AM.