Summary:
Walls, Mississippi is served by a single school, Walls Elementary School, which enrolls 722 students in grades PK–5 as part of the DeSoto County School District. Because there are no middle or high schools in the city, families with older students look to schools elsewhere in the district.
As the only school in town, Walls Elementary stands out for its academic challenges. The school currently ranks in the 25th percentile among Mississippi elementary schools with a 1-star rating, well below its district, which ranks in the 66th percentile with 3 stars. Test scores trail district and state averages in nearly every subject. The biggest concern is 4th grade ELA, where only 29.4% of students are proficient, compared to about 50% in the district and state. Math is also a schoolwide issue, with all grade levels below 40% proficiency, and 3rd grade math sitting roughly 23 points behind the state average. On a brighter note, 5th grade science is a clear strength at 64.3% proficiency, within 7 points of the state average and up 12.7 points from the prior year.
Context matters when looking at these results. About 69% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the chronic absenteeism rate is 26.2%, above the state rate of 23.9%. The school’s ranking has also been unstable, moving from the 35th to the 20th to the 25th percentile over three years. While there were meaningful gains in 3rd grade ELA and 5th grade math and science, 4th grade performance declined, showing that improvement is not yet consistent. For parents, the bottom line is that Walls Elementary is a high-poverty school working to close significant achievement gaps, with science as a promising bright spot and reading and math in need of targeted support.
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