Higher Scores, Tougher Scale
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BWATER VALLEY – Both Water Valley schools improved their academic accountability scores during the 2025-26 school year, with Davidson Elementary posting its highest score in school history, but tougher state standards prevented the district from earning an overall B rating.
The Mississippi State Board of Education approved the latest accountability results Thursday, Oct. 15, marking the first year under a revised grading system that requires schools and districts to earn more points to receive higher letter grades.
Davidson Elementary School recorded the district’s largest improvement, gaining 59 points to finish with 390, compared to 331 the previous year. The score earned Davidson a C rating, just 12 points short of the new threshold for a B.
Water Valley School District Superintendent Drew Pitcock said the 390 points represented the highest accountability score in Davidson’s history.
Water Valley High School earned 700 points, an increase of 11 points from the previous year, and received a B rating for the fifth consecutive year.
The district’s overall score increased 10 points, but it received a C rating under the state’s higher grading requirements.
Pitcock said that under the previous grading standards, both schools and the district would have earned B ratings for the first time in district history.
“While the new standards may have changed the district’s letter grade, they have not changed the progress we have made,” Pitcock said. “Both schools and the district improved overall from the previous year.”
The new grading standards were approved by the State Board of Education in November 2025 after Mississippi reached a threshold established in state law requiring higher expectations for school performance.
Under that law, accountability standards must increase when student proficiency exceeds 75% or at least 65 percent of schools or districts receive a B or higher. Mississippi reached the latter threshold in 2023, prompting a two-year review of the grading system.
The state’s accountability system measures schools using several indicators, including student achievement on standardized tests, academic growth, graduation rates and college and career readiness.
Elementary and middle schools can earn up to 700 points, while high schools and districts can earn up to 1,000 points.
The revised standards also place greater emphasis on college and career readiness and establish a new baseline for evaluating school performance.
State education officials have cautioned that letter grades from the 2025-26 school year should not be directly compared with those from previous years because the grading thresholds have changed.
Coffeeville School District also received a C rating under the new standards, after earning a B with 608 points in 2024-25. Both Coffeeville Elementary School and Coffeeville High School earned B ratings the previous year, with scores of 390 and 739, respectively. The district’s latest C rating places it in the same letter-grade category as Water Valley under the revised accountability system.
Statewide, approximately half of Mississippi’s public schools and districts earned A or B ratings despite the higher standards.
For Water Valley, the most significant gain came at Davidson Elementary, where the 59-point improvement brought the school within reach of a B under the more demanding system.
Pitcock credited teachers, administrators and other district employees for the improvements while emphasizing that the work must continue.
“These results reflect the effort you put forth each day,” Pitcock said in a message to district employees. “We have much to be proud of, but we also know there is still much work to be done.”
