Center Hill High School proudly held its status as an A-ranked school in the recently released Mississippi Department of Education’s Accountability Data, and even reached beyond Desoto County, climbing the state ranks.
CHHS head principal, Jason Witt, describes the grading scale as a “kind of a complicated system,” since there are many factors that help officials score schools and ultimately make the difference between an A and a B school.
“It adds up how proficient our students are in Math, English, Biology, and U.S. History, the four state tests,” Witt explained. “And it creates a percentage […] It looks at how much they’ve grown from their last test to this test. […] It looks at acceleration, our more rigorous classes, AP and gifted, college and career readiness, how many students score well on the ACT, graduation rate…they’ve got a formula for adding those things up.”
Every school in Mississippi can score a maximum of 1,000 points each year. Two years ago, For the 2021-2022 school year, Center Hill High School only received 756 points and was identified for targeted support and improvement. In the most recent report, the school scored a total of 817 for the 22-23 school year, thanks to a jump in its students’ proficiency in all four state tested areas, as well as an increase in participation of accelerated and AP courses. It is also no longer identified for targeted support and improvement.
Although this past school year was Witt’s first year at the Hill, he’s already proud of the growth the Mustangs have shown.
“There were a lot of growth points. There were a lot of students that really showed out compared to the last test.”
Not only did the school reach A-status again, but when the U.S. News and World Report recently announced its annual ranking of high schools across the nation, Center Hill ranked 12th in the entire state. Meanwhile, among just Desoto County, Center Hill broke into the top three high schools, falling behind Hernando (second) and Lewisburg (first). This is an impressive feat, considering Desoto County Schools is the largest district in all of Mississippi, with around 38,000 enrolled students.
At the end of every school year, the start of a new one begins. These score reports give CHHS’s students and staff motivation to aim higher, improve, and grow. Although this school year looks to be much more competitive, Mr. Witt has few doubts about our success, always encouraging everyone to go above and beyond.
“I always look at what we did the previous year, and I always want to at least meet that or exceed it. Then I also look at ‘How are schools that are comparable to our size within our state doing?’ […] The next year is going to be a little bit tougher, so we’ve really got to buckle down and make sure we’ve got all of our bases, hitting all of our standards, and doing well in the classroom. I still expect us to be an A,” said Witt.
