MS Coast schools soar in kindergarten readiness state test. Here’s the list of scores.

Editor’s note: Lyman Elementary received the second-highest kindergarten readiness scores on the Mississippi Coast. An earlier version of this story listed Lizana Elementary in an error. It has been corrected.

Almost every school district in South Mississippi eclipsed the state average — and the benchmark score — for kindergarten readiness, according to data released Thursday by the Mississippi Department of Education.

Overall, the state’s average scale score, 686, is down from the 2019 average of 2011. The MDE said this is largely due to schools continuing to recover from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment provides, parents, teachers and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon entering school,” a press release from MDE said. “Teachers use the results as an instructional baseline to tailor classroom instruction and other services for pre-K and kindergarten students. The assessment also measures how well pre-K programs prepare 4-year-old children to be ready for kindergarten.”

Students receive a score on a scale of 300 too 900, and 681 is considered the benchmark.

Two South Mississippi districts hit below the benchmark: Picayune’s average was 670 and Moss Point’s was 657.

The best performing districts on the Coast were:

• Stone County, 763
• Long Beach, 733
• Harrison County, 732
• Pass Christian, 727

The highest performing elementary school was Bayou View Elementary School (Gulfport School District) with an average score of 780 and 90.57% of students scoring at or above 681. Lymnan Elementary (Harrison County) also had an average score of 780, with 90.54% of students scoring at or above 681.

The only two schools to perform higher than Bayou View Elementary and Lyman Elementary in the state were Obama Magnet School (782) and Neshoba Central Elementary School (789).

Here is a list of average scores from South Mississippi school districts:

Bay-Waveland: 684

Biloxi: 706

George County: 706

Gulfport: 690

Hancock County: 716

Harrison County: 732

Jackson County: 721

Long Beach: 733

Moss Point: 657

Ocean Springs: 694

Pascagoula-Gautier: 681

Pass Christian: 727

Pearl River County: 710

Picayune: 670

Poplarville: 690

Stone County: 763

For all of the MDE data, click here.

This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 3:17 PM.