Summary:
The city of McComb, Mississippi is served by five schools in the McComb School District — two elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school — that together educate approximately 1,921 students in grades PK-12 in a community where 100% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The McComb School District holds a 1-star rating and ranks 96th out of 134 districts in Mississippi, and while student-teacher ratios are relatively low at 11.0:1 to 15.6:1, most proficiency rates still trail state averages.
The standout schools are McComb High School and Denman Junior High School. McComb High jumped from the 10th to 45th percentile in a single year, posting Biology proficiency of 66.1% — above the state's 63.1% — and lifting English II from 24.1% to 45.9%. Denman tripled its 8th-grade math proficiency from 9.9% to 47.6%, nearly matching the state average, and raised 8th-grade science to 51.0%. By contrast, Higgins Middle School declined sharply, with 6th-grade math falling from 52.0% to 33.6%, while Otken Elementary School saw strong 4th-grade gains offset by a collapse in 3rd-grade math to 17.2%, the district's lowest score. Kennedy Elementary School, serving only Pre-K and Kindergarten, has no test scores but posts the district's lowest absenteeism rate at 28.0%.
Chronic absenteeism is the district's most pressing challenge, climbing from 28.0% at Kennedy Elementary to 51.7% at McComb High — more than double the state average of 23.9% — and the high school's graduation rate of 83.3% falls below the state's 89.2%. Science is a clear area of strength, with the district's three highest proficiency rates all in biology and science. Overall, the picture is mixed: older students at McComb High and Denman are showing genuine progress, while younger students at Otken and Higgins are losing ground — a sign that targeted interventions may be working in upper grades, but attendance and early-grade stability remain the district's biggest hurdles.
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