Ellington

On June 1, the Mississippi Department of Education sent a 500-page Race To The Top proposal to radically transform the state's educational system to Washington, D.C. Mississippi's entry in the federal grant program proposes performance pay for teachers, a state board exam system and new specialized academies, but the ambitious plan depends on getting nearly $175 million from the federal government.

Mississippi's application touts several recent reforms, especially the Children First Act of 2009, which allows the state to take over low-performing school districts, and introduces a new statewide grading system for schools and districts that expects schools to continually improve their performance on standardized tests. The state can also boast a new charter school law, passed this year, that provides for the creation of "conversion" charter schools, with independence from standard school district regulations. In May, the state received a $7.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to establish a statewide system to track students' academic data, from pre-school through their entry into the workforce.

One of the application's most significant proposed changes is a state board examination process, which would reconfigure the way students proceed from high school to college. Under the new exam system, high-school students would take an exit exam no later than their sophomore year that, if they pass, would allow them to move on to a community college for the next academic year. Students who fail would re-take the exam each year after that. Passing students could also remain in high school to take a more demanding program that prepared them for admission to selective four-year colleges.

Proponents of board exams argue that they allow students to move on when they are academically ready, as opposed to requiring arbitrary and uniform amounts of time spent in each grade. While unusual for the U.S., the board exam system has plenty of precedent in Europe and elsewhere; similar systems exist in France, England, Germany and Australia, among other countries. Eight other U.S. states have also pledged their support for the state board examination process. MDE estimates that instituting such a process would cost $5.45 million over four years.

The department has also signaled its support for Common Core Standards, an initiative to standardize academic requirements across all states, to better reflect the demands of the modern workforce. Mississippi's proposal asks for $410,000 to establish the common standards in its schools.

Perhaps the most potentially inflammatory proposal in the state's application is its reform of the state's process for evaluating and promoting teachers. The application points out that the state's current system for evaluating teachers is weak and perfunctory, noting: "(Mississippi) acknowledges this area as one where significant progress will need to be made in a short amount of time. Currently, school districts are required to conduct an annual teacher and principal evaluation with little consistency throughout the state."

MDE's proposal introduces a new measure of teachers' performance, based on how much students' test scores improve in their classrooms. The new, "value-added" data would account for more than half of a teacher's annual evaluation, which figures into school districts' hiring and firing decisions.

"With the current renewable contract process not functioning properly due to lack of a state definition of effective teaching and leading, it is extremely challenging for (school districts) to dismiss teachers and leaders in the state," the application says. 


Federal guidelines for Race to the Top ask states to highlight their attempts to improve science and math education because of its special importance to scientific innovation and national security. The MDE proposal calls for creating 24 new selective science, math or technology-focused academies within existing middle schools and high schools. To fund these efforts, the application asks for $8.64 million, which MDE would divy up into $20,000 planning grants and $100,000 three-year grants for the 24 schools. The state's application also proposes a similar system for establishing pre-kindergarten pilot programs, with a total price tag of $15.84 million.