CPSD grades are in

By Courtney Warren

Accountability ratings were recently released for Canton Public School District (CPSD) by the Mississippi Department of Education. Last year, the district saw major improvements in their ratings. 

Reuben B. Myers Canton School of Arts and Sciences and Jimmie Goodloe Elementary School maintained A ratings, and Huey Porter Middle School maintained a B rating. Canton High School, which was once the lowest F in the state, achieved B status for the first time, and its 91 percent graduation rate is the school’s highest ever. The district also experienced proficiency gains in reading and science across the board, and all four of the elementary schools are rated B or higher. 

Superintendent Hannah attributes the district’s progress to consistency and focus. 

“The Canton Public School District attributes its elementary schools’ success to high-quality, student-centered instruction,” said Hannah. “Our elementary schools have created learning structures embedded with research-based approaches to teaching and learning. Consequently, those teaching methods have produced positive student learning outcomes in our elementary schools.”

“Our high-performing teams of teachers are rising to the challenge each year by using those learning protocols and structures to meet every student’s learning needs, whether below grade level, on grade level, or above grade level. And school administrators and teachers are not settling for anything less than the students’ absolute best in the classroom,” said Hannah. 

“Student success begins with setting high expectations and attainable goals,” continued Hannah. “Once our students understand that we have high expectations for them and this is your yearly goal, we do our job in helping them reach that goal, but, more importantly, it is an expectation that you will reach that goal. It is non-negotiable.”

The superintendent also gave a nod to the supportive parents throughout the community. “Equally important, our parents collaborate with teachers to ensure their child meets or exceeds their yearly goal,” he said. “Because of this collaboration, our students are soaring! We have come a long way, but we still have much more to accomplish.” 

“With our skilled teams of school principals and teachers, I am confident that our instructional program will become much more robust, and we will continue to make significant gains each year our students walk through those school doors. We have the right recipe for student success, and our students are showing up!”

The district’s overall accountability rating decreased from a B in 2022 to a C. The Mississippi Department of Education’s Accountability Standards state that if a school or district does not meet an overall 95% testing participation rate, the school or district will automatically be dropped by one classification level. 
Due to the invalidation of scores at Nichols Middle School due to testing irregularities, the district’s testing participation rate was 92.7%, which was below the required 95% testing participation rate. 

Superintendent Gary Hannah calls the district’s automatic downgrade “disappointing,” but he is confident that the district will return to its previous rating. 
“We used what we learned from this experience to make significant changes to our test security plan, and we are moving forward to get back to our B status or higher.”