Caledonia High School places top 20 for state accountability ratings
CALEDONIA, Miss. (WCBI) – The Mississippi Department of Education recently released school and district accountability grades for the 2024-2025 school year.
Statewide, there was a decrease in schools and districts earning a “C” or higher.
According to MDE, this recent school year, around 80.1% of schools and 87.2% of districts earned a grade of “C” or higher. For the 2023-2024 year, about 85.7% of schools and 93.9% of districts earned a “C” or higher.
But over at Caledonia High School, this is not the case. The school came in 13th in the state for state accountability ratings and received another “A” rating.
Principal Gregory Elliott said the school had an 820 rating out of 1000 possible points, which is the 2nd highest Caledonia High School has ever been, and the school is up from last year.
He said the graduation rates for the last couple of years have been around 92%, and the goal is for every student to graduate.
“The goal moving forward every year is to go up,” Elliott said. “That may be challenging this year. I don’t know if people outside of education know, but they are changing the model this upcoming year. So, things are going to be different. U.S. history is no longer going to be on the state test. Which is something most schools did really well on, including us. They’re changing the ACT part of the model some. They’re changing the way they’re doing diploma routes. So, some of those changes will probably cost high schools across the state points. So, next year will kind of be a reset for the first time. But our goal is to always be an ‘A.’ We’ve been an ‘A’ no for four straight years. I think we’ve been in the top 20 for four straight years. Our goal is to do the same next year.”
“Definitely the community, the staff, everybody involved, all the way from the elementary through the high school, we just set a high standard of expectations, not only from us as a school, but through the parents and the community altogether,” said assistant principal Jason Cobb. “And it just shows coming all the way through the elementary through to us here at the high school. ”
“The graduation rate has increased over the years, and that’s just due to our teachers and our parents working hard to keep pushing students to succeed and do their best,” said assistant principal Erica Lewis.
This is the 7th year in a row the Lowndes County School District has earned an A rating. New Hope High School and Caledonia Elementary also received A ratings.
