The 2018-19 accountability results for Mississippi’s school districts were released by the Mississippi Department of Education on Tuesday and once again the Oxford School District and Lafayette County School District find themselves among the state’s best.

For a second straight year, both Oxford and Lafayette School Districts received an A rating. They were two of 31 districts in the state to earn the top mark. Oxford tied with Madison Central School District as the fourth-best district overall with a score of 726. Petal School District was the state’s top district with a score of 754.

Lafayette School District placed 28th overall with a score of 672. The scores are a total sum of each district’s proficiency scores from their Mississippi Academic Assessment Program results.

“We are proud of the achievement of our students for the 2018-2019 school year. Their hard work is what is on display here,”  OSD superintendent Brian Harvey said. “We are happy for all of our employees. It took every one of them doing their absolute best in order to achieve this honor. It is an honor for each of our employees to work in what is considered one of the best school districts in the state and region.”

This marked the seventh consecutive year Oxford School District received an A rating. Included in the accountability scoring is each district’s graduation rate. Oxford improved its 89.6 rate from the 2017-18 school year to 90.1 last year.

Last year, LCSD received its first A rating since the MDE began awarding letter grades in 2012. Lafayette retained that mark for a second-consecutive year. High schools are graded on a 1,000-point scale and Lafayette High School placed 22nd overall with a score of 751 and received a B rating.

“We are very excited to once again be an A district,” LCSD superintendent Adam Pugh said. “Our students and teachers work extremely hard each day. We want to continue to get better each day. Our goal is to continually challenge and grow our student body.”

Water Valley School District earned a D rating with a score of 534.

Statewide there was an increase in districts and schools who received A ratings. Since 2017 there has been a steady increase in the number of districts who have earned top marks. This year there were 31 districts who earn an A rating, increasing 2018’s number by 13.

From 2017 to 2018 there was an increase of 67 schools who received an A rating. In 2019 that number increased slightly with 15 more schools earning an A.