Summary:
Attala County Schools in Mississippi includes two high schools—Ethel Attendance Center and McAdams Attendance Center—both serving grades 7 through 12 in a small, rural, high-poverty area where nearly all students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
If you are comparing the two, Ethel Attendance Center is the stronger academic school overall. It has ranked among the top Mississippi high schools in recent years, earning 5-star ratings in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, and it still holds a solid 4-star rating in the latest 2025-2026 ranking (51st out of 224). Ethel’s strongest subjects are science and math, with Biology proficiency near 90% and Algebra I historically very high. McAdams Attendance Center is not far behind in science—its 8th-grade science score actually surpasses Ethel’s—but it trails in English II and has a lower overall ranking. However, McAdams is improving quickly, jumping from a 1-star to a 3-star rating in one year, with notable gains in Biology and 7th-grade ELA.
Both schools share important strengths and challenges. Graduation rates are above the state average (about 90% vs. 89.2%), despite over 98% of students living in poverty. Chronic absenteeism is a major concern, affecting over 41% of students at both schools—nearly double the state rate. Student-teacher ratios are very low (8.9 at Ethel, 6.9 at McAdams), but attendance problems mean many students miss out on that individual attention. Science instruction is a clear district strength, while English Language Arts is the weakest area, especially at McAdams. For parents, the key takeaway is that Ethel offers consistently strong academics, while McAdams is a rising school worth watching, with both schools needing to address attendance and literacy.
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