NATCHEZ — The Mississippi State Board of Education approved letter grades Thursday for the state’s school districts.

The scores, originally released last month on an unofficial basis, grade Mississippi’s school districts on an A-F accountability system that evaluates how schools and districts performed in the 2017-18 school year.

Mississippi Statewide Accountability System results released Thursday did not change from the unofficial results released last month and show the Natchez-Adams School District maintained a D letter grade from the 2017 to 2018 school year.

The district showed slight improvement overall — from 481 points earned in 2017 to 515 points in 2018 based on a 1,000-point scale — while 29 districts improved their grades across the state.

NASD Deputy Superintendent Zandra McDonald said she is proud of the hard work the schools have shown. McDonald said if the district maintains its current rate of growth, the district should see a change in their letter grade in the near future.

“Although the letter grade has not increased for the district, we continue to see growth,” McDonald said. “We’ve averaged about 30 points of growth each year. Based on the trajectory of the last three years, we should see a change in our state accountability grade.

Results show only Joseph L. Frazier Elementary School improved its letter grade this year, from a D in 2017 to a C in 2018, while Natchez High School and Natchez Freshman Academy both went down a letter grade, from a C to a D.

All other schools in the district maintained their letter grade while showing a slight growth in points.

McLaurin Elementary School and Natchez Early College Academy maintained a B grade, Susie B. West Elementary maintained a C grade, Robert Lewis Magnet School maintained a D grade and Morgantown Middle School maintained an F.

McDonald said Morgantown Middle School has also shown admirable growth by 76 points.

“Morgantown Middle School is about 10 points from moving to the next letter grade,” McDonald said.