The Mississippi Department of Education released the achievement gap data last week for students who took statewide assessments in English language arts and mathematics in the 2016-17 school year.
Achievement gap analysis identifies any disparity in academic performance between subgroups of Mississippi’s students in third through 12th grade. Proficiency is considered meeting or exceeding expectations for what a student should know or be able to do in a grade or course. Overall, Mississippi has significant achievement gaps even with slight improvements among some subgroups.
Based on the analysis of Mississippi student performance, the achievement gap in both English and mathematics widened for African-American and Hispanic students when compared to white students, but the gap narrowed between Asian and multiracial students when compared to white students.
In English-Language Arts assessment, the Newton County School District had an achievement gap between white and African American students of 32.6 percent, a decrease from 2016’s gap of 33.5 percent.
Newton Municipal School District, which is predominately African-American, had the smallest achievement gap between white students and African-American students on the ELA at 14.3 percent, but slightly higher than last year’s gap of 8.6 percent.
Union Public School District had an achievement gap between white students and African-American students of 27.3 percent on the ELA, a decrease from last year’s gap of 36.7 percent.
For NCSD, the ELA gap between white students and Hispanic students was 17.4 percent. For economically disadvantage students, the ELA gap was 26.8 percent between non-economically disadvantaged students. NCSD students with disabilities had a 32.7 percent gap on the ELA from students without disabilities, and the district’s students with limited English proficiency had a 19.7 percent gap between students without limited English proficiency on the ELA.
Female NCSD students had a 10.7 percent achievement advantage over male students on the ELA.
For UPSD, there was a 20.6 percent achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged students on the ELA and a 29 percent gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities. UPSD students had one of the lowest ELA gaps between female and male students in the state with females only performing 1 percent better than males.
For Newton Municipal students, there was a huge 40.6 percent gap between economically disadvantaged students on the ELA but only a 10.7 percent gap for male students and female students.
In the mathematics assessment, NCSD’s achievement between white students and African American students was 33.2 percent, higher than 2016 gap of 27.3 percent. The math gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically students was 30.6 percent.
NCSD students with disabilities had a 29.9 percent math achievement gap between students without disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency had a 22.1 percent math gap between students without limited English proficiency.
There was a small gap between NCSD’s male and female students with the female students having a 7.6 percent advantage.
NMSD had a 14.9 percent achievement gap on the math assessment between white students and African-American students, slightly higher than 2016 when it was 10.4 percent. NMSD’s economically disadvantaged students actually had a 19 percent advantage over non-economically disadvantaged students on the math assessment. Female NMSD students had a small 4.9 percent advantage over male students on the math assessment.
For UPSD, on the math assessment, there was a 36.4 percent achievement gap, slightly higher than last year’s gap of 35 percent. UPSD’s economically disadvantaged students had a 27.6 percent math gap between non-economically disadvantaged students. UPSD’s students with disabilities had a 44.2 percent gap on the math assessment compared to last year’s 35 percent gap. Female UPSD students had a 4.5 percent math achievement gap over the male students.
Other state data from the report included:
The gap increased between economically advantaged and economically disadvantaged students in both English and mathematics.
The gap widened in English between English speaking students and English learners but the gap narrowed in mathematics.
The gap narrowed between male and female students in English but it widened in mathematics.
The gap increased in both English and mathematics between students without disabilities and students with disabilities.
“I encourage school districts to carefully examine the data in this report and implement plans to address the disparity of performance between student groups,” said Carey Wright, state superintendent of education. ”The state has set ambitious goals to close the achievement gap over the next 10 years, and it will take aggressive and coordinated efforts to accomplish these goals. The MDE will continue to provide technical assistance and support to schools and districts as they work to close gaps.”
