Just as consistency is a key aspect in childhood development, it also plays an important part in the overall health of schools across the state of Mississippi, including those in the Vicksburg Warren School District.

The confusion surrounding the accountability ratings for the 2014-2015 school year released yesterday by the Mississippi Department of Education stands as proof of the need for consistency.

Due to a variety of tests being administered from year to year and variations in how they were administered, the chief of research and development at the MDE, said the differences “(render) the grades as not a valid measure of progress.”

The ratings have no meaning due to a lack of consistency.

It’s just that simple. It’s so meaningless that even the department that released the ratings admits it.

Thankfully, the letters are not as ominous as they may have first appeared.

VWSD superintendent Chad Shealy lends perspective, “One of the important things for us to look at is 64 percent of all districts in the state dropped in accountability level, we did not. Our graduation rate went up 12 percent, which is huge in comparison for the rest of the state, which was at 6 percent.”

Our school district is clearly making progress, even if the ratings for the previous school year are not reflective of that.

Of course, the inconsistencies are not an excuse. Room for improvement always exists when it comes to educating future generations.

“Is it where I want us long term? Absolutely not. Are we going to get better? Absolutely we are. But I am proud of what we’ve done,” Shealy said. “We haven’t had a consistent test. We haven’t had a consistent curriculum.”

We agree. We feel our schools deserve a chance at a fair rating process to bolster the progress we’ve seen and identify the work that still needs to be done.

Even though the state now has an updated plan, our schools suffered at the hands of meaningless ratings and a lack of state direction.

For all of the political ideologies, the varying measures of success and the confusion, our state’s children should be something worth agreeing over a long time ago.

Mississippi, give our schools a fair chance to make the grade this upcoming year.