Summary:
Avon, Mississippi is served by one public high school option, Riverside High School, a combined 7-12 campus with 315 students in the Western Line Schools district. Riverside has shown extreme ranking volatility in recent years, climbing to 56th out of 232 schools (4 stars) in 2024-2025 before plunging to 183rd out of 224 schools (1 star) in 2025-2026. This dramatic swing makes it difficult to characterize the school with a single rating, but the most recent data places it in the bottom fifth of Mississippi high schools.
The school faces significant challenges beyond test scores. Riverside's graduation rate is 72.9%, well below the district's 74.2% and the state's 89.2%. Chronic absenteeism is a critical concern, with 39.9% of students missing substantial instructional time compared to 23.9% statewide. Test proficiency in 2025-2026 shows overall proficiency around 34.7% versus the state average of 52.9%. Middle school ELA scores are particularly low, with 7th grade proficiency at 19.1% and 8th grade at 21.1%, roughly half the state averages.
Despite these struggles, there are bright spots. In 2024-2025, Riverside outperformed the state in Biology (64.1% vs 62.0%) and English II (62.0% vs 49.5%), but those gains were not sustained in 2025-2026. The school serves an almost entirely economically disadvantaged population, with 100.63% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.9. However, the combination of high poverty, chronic absenteeism, and low literacy outcomes points to urgent priorities: reducing absenteeism, improving ELA instruction, and stabilizing performance across grade levels.
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