Mississippi’s public schools will soon have a new accountability rating system and officials say the top status will be harder to achieve.

State Board of Education approved the new system earlier this month and it will be put into effect this fall.

Star School will be the top rating instead of the Level 5 accreditation used now and the new system will rank schools using state test scores, achievement growth and high school completion index.

Lee County Schools Superintendent Mike Scott says the new system is much fairer to everyone and it will be more difficult to achieve Star School status.

About 25 percent of Mississippi schools were Level 5, but national testing showed that Mississippi students are behind.