Best Public Schools in Coffeeville, MS

Coffeeville, Mississippi is served by a small, two-school district—the Coffeeville School District—which enrolls 367 students across grades PK–12 and carries a 2-star state rating. Coffeeville Elementary School handles grades PK–8 with 257 students, while Coffeeville High School serves just 110 students in grades 9–12. These two schools are the entire district, so their combined performance directly defines the district’s overall profile. The elementary school has been the steadier of the two, hovering in the 41st–55th percentile over the past three years, while the high school has swung wildly from a 4-star, top-20% ranking in 2024–2025 to a 1-star, bottom-15% ranking the following year.

Both schools face serious challenges that parents should know about. Every student in the district qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and chronic absenteeism runs roughly 38% at the elementary school and 36% at the high school—both about 1.5 times the state average. The high school’s graduation rate is 78%, more than 11 points below the state’s 89.2%. Current End-of-Course exam scores at the high school average just 39.4% proficient, versus 59.5% statewide, with Algebra I (37.5%) and Biology (41.7%) especially weak. Meanwhile, the elementary school shows pockets of real strength: 7th grade math proficiency is 68.2%, 8th grade science is 61.6%, and 3rd grade math/ELA both hit 50%, all above state averages. However, ELA and math in several middle grades lag behind the state, and 5th and 6th grade math are more than 13 points below state averages.

The most important takeaway is that small enrollment numbers make results highly volatile. With only 110 high school students, a single small cohort can cause huge ranking swings—so the high school’s drop from top-20% to bottom-15% may reflect cohort differences more than a sudden collapse in quality. Still, the current EOC scores and lagging graduation rate point to a school in urgent need of support. Both schools do enjoy favorable student-teacher ratios (12:1 at the elementary, 7:1 at the high school), yet these small classes have not overcome the combined effects of universal poverty, high absenteeism, and academic gaps. For parents, the elementary school offers several encouraging bright spots, but the high school’s academic struggles and attendance challenges make it the district’s top priority.