Science scores climbed across most grades in the Golden Triangle last year, and high school students fared well on end-of-course exams. English-language arts and math scores, however, decreased across the board among area fifth-graders.
Mississippi Department of Education released the scores Thursday for 2025-2026 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program testing, which measures students’ performance in English-language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8, science in grades 5 and 8 and English II, Algebra I and Biology in high school.
     The U.S. History assessment was not given for the 2025-2026 school year after the Mississippi Board of Education voted to eliminate it as a graduation requirement.
Test results are separated into five levels. Students who score within levels 1 and 2 did not pass the state assessment, scoring either basic or minimal, while levels 3, 4 and 5 represent a passing score. Scoring in the upper two levels (4 and 5) is considered proficient and advanced, respectively.
The scores make up a large portion of the state’s A-F accountability ratings for each school district. Accountability grades for the 2025-2026 school year will be released Oct. 15, following approval from SBE.
Columbus Municipal School District
Third-grade students passing the ELA assessment rose this year from 54.7% to 60.4%. Grades 4 and 5 saw lower pass rates this year at 59.3% and 66.3%, respectively, compared to 64.2% and 70.6% last year. Grades 6-8, however, all posted higher pass rates this year, with sixth-graders posting the highest jump ELA testing, rising to 71.5% this year from 51.6%
The English II pass rate rose from 56.3% last year to 58.4% this year.
At least 56% of CMSD students passed each of the math assessments, though pass rates decreased among fourth- and fifth-graders as well as students who took the Algebra I assessment. Third-grade pass rates rose from 52.7% to 56.7%. Grades 5-8 all logged increases of at least 9 percentage points.
In science, 81.3% of fifth-graders passed the assessment, up from 79.1% last year. Biology pass rates also rose from 59.3% last year to 64.4%. The eighth-grade pass rate remained at 58.7%.
Lowndes County School District
Grades 3 and 6 were the only ones to see increases in ELA pass rates this year, with 86% of third-graders passing, compared to 79.9% last year. Among sixth-graders, 81.9% passed this year, up from 78.1%.
Grade 4 saw the largest decrease in pass rates, dropping from 88.3% to 79.6%. Pass rates among seventh- and eighth-graders both decreased by at least 5 percentage points. English II pass rates decreased by 2.7 points, and fifth-grade rates decreased only slightly by 0.1 percentage point.
LCSD saw decreases in grades 3-6 on math assessments, with fourth grade logging the biggest drop from 89.2% passing last year to 82.3% this year.
In third grade, 78.9% of students passed, compared to 80.4% last year, and 85.2% of sixth-graders passed, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points from last year.
The Algebra I pass rate rose from 96.6% to 98.1%. In grades 7-8, 89.1% and 81.7% of students passed the math assessment, respectively, compared to 86.2% and 80.2% last year.
Fewer eighth-graders passed the science assessment this year, falling to 77.3% from 79.6% last year. Fifth-grade pass rate rose from 89.2% to 92.1%, and the Biology pass rate increased from 88.8% to 90.3%.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District
More fourth- and third-graders passed the ELA assessment this year, with 74.3% and 76.7% of students passing, respectively. The English II pass rate also saw an increase, rising from 73.9% last year to 76.9%.
Grades 5-8 all saw lower passing rates on the ELA test, with seventh grade seeing the highest drop of 7 percentage points, falling to 69.6%. The pass rate for sixth grade dropped from 74.4% to 69.5%, and the fifth grade rate saw a decrease from 77.1% to 80.7%.
Only grades 3, 4 and 8 saw increases in math assessments this year, with eighth-grade seeing the largest jump from 79% of students passing last year to 86.5% of students this year. The fifth-grade pass rate fell from 86.4% to 82.4% while sixth- and seventh-grade pass rates fell about 2 percentage points each to 75.6% and 80.6%, respectively.
In science, pass rates rose among fifth- and eighth-graders, sitting at 86.4% and 82.5%, respectively. The Biology pass rate, however, fell from 71.1% to 70.5% this year.
West Point Consolidated School District
ELA pass rates rose across the board at WPCSD aside from in third and fifth grade. The third-grade pass rate fell from 63.7% to 60.9% while the fifth-grade rate saw a larger drop from 79.3% last year to 70.1% this year.
All other grade levels increased in passing rates this year, with the English II rate rising the most from 61.1% passing last year to 72.6% this year. Among sixth-graders, 80.5% passed the ELA assessment, compared to only 72.1% last year.
Grades 3-5 all decreased in math pass rates this year. Third-graders had the largest drop with only 50.8% passing this year, a 14.6% decrease from last year. The fourth-grade pass rate fell from 78.6% to 72.3%.
The eighth-grade pass rate saw the largest increase on the math assessment with 89.2% of students passing this year, an increase of 12.4 percentage points from last year. The number of passing students also increased among sixth- and seventh-graders this year, as well as those who took the Algebra I assessment.
In science, only eighth-grade saw a decrease on the assessment, falling about 4.6 percentage points to 64.8% this year. The Biology pass rate rose the most, from 66.1% last year to 71.1%. More than 84% of fifth-graders passed this year, compared to 81.4% last year. McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.