Understanding District and State Testing in Mississippi

  • Future of Schools

In 2018, Mississippi First released Understanding District and State Testing in Mississippi. This report uses field research on testing practices in four diverse Mississippi school districts to determine how many tests Mississippi students take and how much time they spend taking those tests.

District and State Testing in Mississippi

Learn about the research we gathered and analyzed to understand district and state testing in Mississippi.

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Major Takeaways

Mississippi First wrote this report to bring much-needed research and analysis to a debate mostly characterized by impassioned anecdotes. The report offers several eye-opening general and comparative findings. Report highlights include the following:

In 2014-2015, students spent an average of 7 hours, 53 minutes—less than 1% of a 180-day school year—taking state tests.

Students took more district tests than state tests in every district we studied, but they sometimes spent less time on district testing than on state testing

Test completion hours do not reflect all the time schools devote to standardized testing.

Low-performing districts in our sample administered more tests and spent more time testing than high-performing districts.

Low-performing districts prioritized test prep over content instruction for at least 25% of their instructional year.

Authors

Rachel Canter

Executive Director

Rachel Canter is the Executive Director of Mississippi First and author of many Mississippi First reports, including Leaving Last in Line, the State of Pre-K series, and Public Perception of Public Charter Schools (2019). Rachel founded Mississippi First in 2008.

Angela Bass

Former Deputy Director of Policy, 2014-2019

From 2014 to 2019, Angela Bass was the Deputy Director of Policy for Mississippi First and the co-author of The State of Public Pre-K in Mississippi (2011-2012). She analyzed policy and data, developed policy proposals, conducted advocacy activities directed toward policymakers, wrote research and policy papers, and delivered policy presentations.