The Mississippi Department of Education has released the results of the 2025-2026 state assessments. A key takeaway is that school districts across the state have done yeoman’s work to maintain the high rates of achievement that were attained post-COVID with the aid of $2.5-billion in federal pandemic relief funding. Our public schools’ extraordinarily good use of those funds drove not only recovery, but impressive improvements in proficiency rates in English Language Arts, Math, and Science. Those federal funds are now gone and, because they have not been replaced, so are many of the critical academic support programs they funded.
The 2025-2026 assessment scores show a slight improvement in ELA proficiency compared to 2024-2025, from 47.4% to 47.5%, a marginal drop in Math proficiency from 54.5% to 53.9%, and a significant increase in Science proficiency from 60.9% to 64.1%.
It’s worth noting that proficiency, by Mississippi standards, is a tall order. In our state, assessment scores fall into five levels: minimal, basic, passing, proficient, and advanced. A student must score in one of the top two levels to be considered proficient. The percentage of students passing the state assessments this year (scoring in the top three levels) is 77.1% in ELA, 81.7% in Math, and 82.2% in Science. You can see school and district assessment results here.
Pass rates on Mississippi’s three end-of-course assessments also remained stable, with English II improving from 77.4% in 2024-2025 to 78.2% in 2025-20256, Algebra I dropping slightly from 94.6% to 94.2%, and Biology rising from 78.4% to 80.5%.
For context, Tennessee just released the proficiency rates of students participating in its four-year-old voucher program. Just 17% of Tennessee voucher students met that state’s Math proficiency standards, and 24% scored proficient in English.
Kudos to Mississippi’s public school teachers and students for their hard work and continued success! We are proud of you.
These assessment results will figure significantly in the accountability ratings expected in October. The grades assigned to schools and districts this year will be based on increased standards that require higher scores to be rated an A, B, C, or D. Some schools and districts will likely drop a letter grade because the scores needed to achieve those grades have been raised. But a drop in letter grade does not necessarily mean that the quality of education being provided has changed – your schools have to meet a higher overall target this year than they did last year to maintain that A, B, or C.
Please join us in thanking our public school teachers for the hard work they do every day to move our children to success! Remind your legislators that Mississippi needs a meaningful teacher pay raise to keep these strong educators in our classrooms. Together, we’ve got this!
