Crestwood receives A rating for first time

Sep. 29—Meridian elementary schools made giant gains in their accountability ratings with Crestwood Elementary School earning an A-rating for the first time in school history, according to the state's 2023 accountability system report that was released Thursday.

Parkview and West Hills elementary schools also jumped from D to B-rated schools for the first time since the state's current accountability system went into effect in 2014.

"We are excited about the results," said West Hills Elementary School Principal Shannon Miller. West Hills had the largest gains of any school in the district, growing by 129 points. "Our teachers and staff worked really hard providing quality, sound, educational best practices, and identifying student deficits and addressing those."

Miller attributes the school's growth to teachers being more attentive and intentional in identifying areas in which individual students needed more help.

"We are growing children, and now we are really focused on closing the gap so children are proficient and advanced in reading, math and science," she said.

Overall, the Meridian Public School District was designated a successful school district for the second consecutive year, according to the 2023 accountability report.

Seven of nine MPSD schools improved their official grade for the 2022-2023 school year compared to the 2021-2022 school year. This allowed the district to grow by 26 total points to maintain a successful C-rating. The district made huge gains and came up just short of being a B-rated district for the year.

While Crestwood was the only A-rated school in the district, West Hills, Parkview and Oakland Heights Elementary were all graded a B, up from D schools the prior year. Both Poplar Springs and T.J. Harris elementary schools moved from D-ratings to C-ratings. Oaklands Heights and T.J. Harris were both closed during an elementary reconfiguration following last school year. Magnolia and Northwest middle schools maintained their D ratings.

Meridian High School, which grew by 27 points to a score of 681, was able to maintain its B- rating. For the 2022-23 school year, MHS focused heavily on the ACT, ACT WorkKeys and dual enrollment classes.

"I am very pleased with the progress we've made since last year," said MPSD Superintendent Dr. Amy Carter. "Our teachers, parents and community rallied around our students and made sure they were ready for the challenge ahead of them. The district plans to continue to empower learners to become leaders by increasing our proficiency. We are implementing high-quality curriculum, instruction and assessments to develop proficient readers."

Crestwood Elementary Principal Dana Bell has been keeping the school's exciting news quiet for weeks until the official release by the Mississippi Department of Education.

"It is amazing. We have worked for the last four years trying to improve our rating," Bell said. "We focused on building relationships with our students and our parents and the community. We tried to make them understand attendance matters."

Bell said a lot of the school's points came from student growth.

"A lot of our students lost a lot during COVID, so we have had to focus on filling in the gaps and growing our children," she said.

The elementary school was graded a C-rating during the 2021-2022 report, and she said the school's goal was to move up to a B-rating. "We exceeded that goal."

Crestwood students celebrated on Friday morning with a hallway party. They are planning a bigger celebration at a later date, as Miller said they are preparing to do at West Hills.

Shannon Thomas, principal at Parkview Elementary School, said the school's teachers, staff, administrators and Foster Grandparents all worked hard to help students grow and become more proficient in reading, science and math. They had hopes of moving up to a C-rating but surpassed their own expectations to become a B school.

"It feels wonderful, and when I say we worked hard, a lot of people really worked hard," Thomas said. "It really was a collaborative effort."

She said they looked at data from the previous year and saw where instruction could be targeted to help students grow in their learning. They also explained to students how they could work together to reach their goal of moving up in the rating system and asked students to jump onboard to help the school reach its goal.

"I want to say congratulations to our dedicated administrators, teachers, parents and students for playing a key role in our successful rating," said Janet Fortner, Meridian's director of curriculum and instruction. "We have systems in place to ensure students have access to high-quality instructional materials and teachers have what they need to provide high-quality instruction for all students. We are thankful for the achievements that our students have shown and will continue to strive to 'Believe in Blue.'"

Contact Glenda Sanders at gsanders@themeridianstar.com.