Best Public Schools in Carthage, MS

The city of Carthage, Mississippi, has five public schools serving roughly 2,061 students: three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Three of these schools belong to the Leake County School District, while Standing Pine Elementary School and Red Water Elementary School are tiny independent districts of their own. Every school serves a very high-poverty student body, with roughly 99.7% of Carthage students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Among the three Leake County schools, Leake Central Junior High School stands out as the relative academic bright spot: it holds the highest state rank (20th percentile) and posted strong middle-school math results, including 47.1% proficiency in 7th grade math and a 100% Algebra I end-of-course pass rate in 2024-25. Leake Central Elementary School has the best attendance in the district (14.8% chronic absenteeism) and solid 5th grade science performance, but 4th grade math proficiency sits at just 16.3%. Leake Central High School is clearly the weakest link, with the lowest rank (10th percentile), the highest chronic absenteeism (35.7%), a graduation rate of 79.0%, and EOC proficiency rates below 40% in every subject. The two small independent elementary schools, Standing Pine and Red Water, have dramatically lower student-teacher ratios (7.6 and 5.8) compared to roughly 15 in the Leake Central schools, but no test score or ranking data is available for them.

For parents, the biggest takeaway is that attendance and academic performance both slide sharply as students move from elementary to high school. Chronic absenteeism rises from 14.8% to 20.4% to 35.7%, and the high school’s biology and algebra scores are the lowest in the area. The junior high shows real promise in accelerated math, which suggests some students can succeed when given the right opportunity. Meanwhile, the two small schools offer small class sizes that may benefit children, but without performance data it is impossible to know how well they deliver academically. Overall, Carthage schools face the challenges of concentrated poverty, and the Leake County School District carries a 1-star rating, ranking 114th out of 134 districts in Mississippi.