Both the East Tallahatchie School District and West Tallahatchie School District recorded higher district-level point totals on a state grading scale, according to a report from the Mississippi Department of Education.
MDE last Thursday released a report on 2025-26 school district and school-level accountability ratings.
The Mississippi Statewide Accountability System uses letter grades of A-F to reflect how well individual schools and school districts overall are performing based on standardized criterion.
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Schools and school districts earn points for each component in the state accountability system.
Grades are based on student achievement, individual student growth, science proficiency in grades 5 and 8 and high school biology, four-year graduation rate, student participation in testing, and other measures.
The state’s 2025-26 grading system reflects higher standards adopted by the Mississippi State Board of Education. As a result, grades from previous years cannot be strictly compared to 2025-26 grades.
“Communities should treat this year as a reset and starting point from which future progress will be measured,” noted an MDE fact sheet, which added, “Many schools and districts may receive a lower letter grade for the 2025-26 school year, even if student performance has stayed the same or improved. This may be the result of higher standards, not a decline in school quality.”
On a districtwide basis, both the East and West Tallahatchie school districts remained unchanged at a grade of C, based on a casual eyeball comparison of 2024-25 and 2025-26 school year results, which reflect the old and new standards, respectively.
The West Tallahatchie School District achieved significant overall growth on a quality point scale.
WTSD’s overall quality points score rose from 553 points in 2024-25 to 624 in 2025-26, just 18 points shy of the minimum 642 required to earn a B grade, which would be a first for the district.
ETSD scored 588 quality points during the latest school year, up from 585 one year earlier and, according to ETSD Superintendent Raymond Russell, "our highest reported accountability point total in the past 10 years."
With a letter grade of “C,” both the East and West Tallahatchie districts are considered “Successful.” It is the fourth straight year WTSD has earned that level and the third year in a row for ETSD.
Among individual schools, Charleston High School improved from a C to a B, jumping from 622 quality points to 714 points. Among high schools, a total of 689 points are required for a B score and 769 points for an A.
Charleston Elementary dropped from a C to a D — the school’s third straight year of declines in letter grade. In quality points, CES fell from 377 points in 2023-24, to 336 points in 2024-25, to 293 points in 2025-26.
Grades for other schools are as follows:
» Charleston Middle School, for a third straight year, graded at D. However, its quality points have risen each of those three years — from 303 points in 2023-24, to 314 points in 2024-25, and to 340 points in 2025-26, reflecting subject area gains.
» R.H. Bearden Elementary School continued to be graded at B for a second consecutive year — the first school in Tallahatchie County to be graded so high in back-to-back years since Charleston High earned a B for both 2022-23 and 2023-24. Bearden’s gains in quality points have continued at a sharp rate, from 298 points for 2023-24, to 385 points in 2024-25, and, now, to 452 points for the 2025-26 school session — just 5 points shy of the minimum score of 457 points required to earn an A under the stricter guidelines.
» West Tallahatchie High School remained a C for a fourth year. Total quality points stood at 581 in 2023-24, fell to 526 points in 2024-25 but rebounded to 586 points in 2025-26.
See the attached report, from MDE, for in-depth accountability scores for all public schools and school districts in the state.
