Best Public Schools in Forest, MS

Forest, Mississippi is served by 4 schools spanning pre-K through 12th grade — one elementary, one middle, one high school, and one alternative center — with a combined enrollment of 2,494 students across the Forest Municipal School District and the Scott County School District. All four schools serve predominantly low-income families, with free/reduced lunch rates between 83.9% and 99.7%.

The strongest school overall is Scott Central Attendance Center, part of the 3-star Scott County School District, which surpasses the Forest Municipal schools on nearly every metric despite having the highest poverty rate in the city. Its biology proficiency is exceptional at 85.2%, and its algebra and 8th-grade math scores near or exceed state averages. Meanwhile, Forest Elementary shows a bright spot: 4th-grade math jumped from 52% to 67.8%, well above the state average. In contrast, Hawkins Middle School is a 0-star school ranking in the bottom 8% of Mississippi middle schools, with ELA and math proficiency far below state averages. Forest High School has a graduation rate of only 78.3% and the highest chronic absenteeism rate at 39.8%, though it made strong year-over-year gains in biology and English II.

Chronic absenteeism is a major divide: Forest Elementary and Hawkins Middle are below the state average, while Scott Central and Forest High are dramatically above it. Science is a relative strength across all schools, with scores much closer to state averages than reading or math. The two districts in the same city provide very different opportunities — Scott County is ranked 54th of 134 districts, while Forest Municipal ranks 108th. For parents, the key takeaways are that Scott Central is outperforming despite high poverty, Forest Elementary is improving in math, but Hawkins Middle and Forest High face significant challenges in academics and attendance.