Summary:
The city of Drew, Mississippi is home to two schools: A W James Elementary School and Drew Hunter Middle School, both part of the Sunflower City Cons School District. These schools face significant challenges, including high poverty rates, low statewide rankings, and concerning chronic absenteeism levels.
Both A W James Elementary and Drew Hunter Middle have 100% of their students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating extremely high poverty levels in the student population. This high-poverty environment can create barriers to student learning and achievement. Additionally, the schools have relatively low rankings within the state of Mississippi, with A W James Elementary ranking between 175-235 out of 377-390 elementary schools, and Drew Hunter Middle ranking between 152-181 out of 243-266 middle schools. This suggests the schools are performing below average compared to their peers across the state.
Another area of concern is the high chronic absenteeism rate, with 23.9% of students chronically absent in the 2022-2023 school year. This can significantly impact student learning and academic progress. While the schools have small student-teacher ratios, with A W James Elementary at 11:1 and Drew Hunter Middle at 10.4:1, their proficiency rates on state assessments range from 16% to 66.7%, generally performing below district and state averages. Addressing the challenges facing these schools, such as improving attendance, providing additional academic resources, and supporting the high-poverty student population, will be crucial to enhancing educational outcomes in the Drew community.
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