Aberdeen School District

The Aberdeen School District in Mississippi includes three schools: Aberdeen Elementary (grades K–4), Belle-Shivers Middle School (grades 5–8), and Aberdeen High School (grades 9–12), serving 924 students in a small-town setting where 99–100% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district is ranked 99th out of 134 Mississippi districts with a 1-star rating, and while it generally trails state averages across grade levels and subjects, the three schools show very different trajectories.

Aberdeen Elementary is the district's clear bright spot. Its percentile ranking climbed from the 13th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 36th percentile in 2025–2026, making it the only school in the district to earn 2 stars. The school posted strong ELA gains, with 3rd grade rising from 27.8% to 40.3% and 4th grade from 33.3% to 42.6%. Belle-Shivers Middle School showed it could beat the state in 6th and 7th grade math in 2024–2025, but those gains faded dramatically in 2025–2026, with 7th grade math falling from 62.7% to 37.2%. Aberdeen High School is the biggest concern, holding the lowest percentile rank (23rd) and a chronic absenteeism rate of 28.5%, well above the state average.

Across the district, English Language Arts is the weakest subject area, especially English II at the high school, where just 29.2% of students are proficient compared to 49.3% statewide. Yet there are genuine bright spots: Biology proficiency at the high school jumped from 32.7% to 51.1%, and Algebra I improved to 56.2%, just 9.8 points below the state. Notably, the middle and high schools have much smaller class sizes (student–teacher ratios around 11:1 versus 17.4 at the elementary school), yet their scores are generally lower, suggesting that attendance, mobility, and learning gaps matter more than class size. Chronic absenteeism rises sharply with grade level, and 5th grade science at Belle-Shivers (47.5%) is a relative strength even while remaining below state averages.