State Board of Education Meets

The State Board of Education held its monthly board meeting yesterday, February 25, 2021.  Among other agenda items, the Board:

• Accepted the resignation of Dr. Jason Dean due to his starting a new job.  Lt. Governor Hosemann will appoint his replacement. 
• Considered revising the business rules of the state accountability system to include ACT WorkKeys.  The Board tabled this item last month.   The Board accepted MDE staff’s proposal of a Silver-level score on WorkKeys along with a recognized industry certification or completion of a career pathway and added the option to allow a Gold- or Platinum-level WorkKeys score to count on its own in the career readiness indicator.  This action will now go back out for public comment.  The new indicator will go into effect in the 2021-22 school year.
• Suspended renewal requirements and granted a 1-year extension for all license types with a current expiration date of 6/30/21. All qualifying licenses will now be dated to expire 6/30/22.
• Approved temporarily allowing prospective superintendents who meet all other qualifications except the accountability rating requirement to be deemed eligible to receive an initial District Superintendent License via the Alternative Qualifications for Prospective District Superintendent so as to begin practice.
• Granted a 1-month extension (from 2/15/21 to 3/15/21) to allow Mississippi’s new NBCTs to submit documentation so as to receive the prorated salary supplement for the second term of this school year.
• Approved a 1-year suspension of the reporting requirements for the Literacy Based Promotion Act (LBPA) as waivers for other LBPA requirements will impact the data needed for the report. Districts must still document interventions and supports for students.
• Approved a 1-year suspension of the Effectiveness Evaluation Plan for the 2020-21 school year for Early Learning Collaboratives.  The board also approved an additional 1-year suspension of the instructional time requirement and the student membership requirement for collaboratives this year.
• Approved an additional 1-year suspension of the cursive writing assessment for the 2020-21 school year.