The Brookhaven School District has reached its highest-everlevel of success in statewide accountability ratings, and all fourof the city schools judged in the system are ranked near thetop.

According to the results of the Mississippi StatewideAccountability System for 2010, the Brookhaven district has beenrated “successful,” the third-highest ranking in a seven-categoryscoring system that details a district’s success in educatingstudents. The new label is a step above last year’s “academicwatch” rating and will likely place the district among the state’smost successful when full rankings are released later thisyear.

“I think we have turned the corner in our focus on academics,”said Superintendent Lea Barrett. “We have good systems in place toidentify children who have a problem and good intervention servicesin place to help those children get back on their feet.”

The biggest turn-around in the district was Alexander JuniorHigh School, which is rated as successful in 2010 after beingjudged at risk of failing and undergoing a regulatory year ofimprovement in 2009.

Lipsey School also moved up the ladder, improving from anacademic watch rating in 2009 to successful in 2010.

Brookhaven Elementary School remained at the top this year,maintaining its next-to-highest ranking of high performing.Brookhaven High School, meanwhile, moved up a spot from successfulto high performing.

“This is the first time in the history of the school we’vescored above a level three, above successful,” said BHS PrincipalDr. Jay Smith. “It means our students are performing at a higheracademic level than they’ve ever performed before.”

The accountability system is judged by seven rankings, whichdescend in order from star, high performing, successful, academicwatch, low performing, at-risk of failing and failing. The systemfactors in a quality distribution index (QDI) that grades schools’success across various student groups, a high school completionindex (HSCI) and graduation rate, and a growth status that showswhether or not schools are succeeding in a one-year span.

Accountability results are derived from two statewide tests -Subject Area Testing Program and the Mississippi Curriculum Test,Second Edition.

Results for the Lincoln County School District were notavailable Thursday.

The Brookhaven district scored an overall QDI of 159 on a scaleof 0-300, and an HSCI of 185 on the same scale. It met growthrequirements, but turned in a graduation rate of only 75.4 percent- 8.5 percentage points lower than last year’s 83.9 percent.

Barrett believes the low graduation rate is due to a reportingerror on the district’s part.

“We have a 9 percent dropout rate, so with a 75 percentgraduation rate, that leaves 16 percent of our kids unaccountedfor,” she said. “I think we reported some bad data. Our graduationrate has typically been better than 83 percent.”