The percentage of Mississippi students making high scores on state tests declined in all four content areas, the latest results reveal.

It’s the first time those numbers have seen a meaningful drop in years, aside from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paula Vanderford, chief accountability officer for the state education department, conceded the downturn was “unusual for Mississippi” at Thursday’s state board of education meeting.

“With the exception of COVID, we’ve seen steady increases in our overall proficiency,” she said. “So the results this year have given us the need to take a deeper dive into what the results really mean.”

All four end-of-course assessments — Algebra I, English II, U.S. history and biology — saw similar or slightly higher pass rates compared to last year.

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