Booneville School District

The Booneville School District serves approximately 1,337 students across three schools in Booneville, Mississippi: Anderson Elementary School (PK–4), R.H. Long Booneville Middle School (5–8), and Booneville High School (9–12), with the district as a whole earning a 4-star rating and ranking 22nd out of 134 districts in Mississippi. Despite serving a majority low-income population, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 60% to nearly 72%, all three schools outperform the state average in many subjects, a testament to effective instruction across the district.

Anderson Elementary School is the district's standout in mathematics, posting 4th grade math proficiency of 70.3% in 2025-2026, nearly 19 points above the state average, and maintaining a consistent 4-star rating over the past three years. However, 4th grade ELA is a hidden weakness at 43.5% proficiency, nearly 9 points below the state and a 9.5-point drop from the prior year. R.H. Long Booneville Middle School is more volatile, falling from a 4-star to a 3-star rating, with declines in every ELA grade level and a steep 14.9-point drop in 8th grade science. Booneville High School has seen the most dramatic change, falling from a 5-star, 92nd-percentile ranking to a 4-star, 72nd-percentile ranking, coinciding with declining English II and Algebra I scores below the state average.

The district's most pressing concern is chronic absenteeism at the high school, where 24.0% of students are chronically absent, double the rate at the elementary and middle schools and essentially equal to the state average. This is especially troubling given the high school's graduation rate of 88.7% sits slightly below the state's 89.2%. The middle school also shows a worrying pattern where math proficiency declines as students advance, from 65.6% in 5th grade to 49.2% in 8th grade. Still, the district remains strong overall: elementary science is excellent, high school Biology and English II are well above state averages, and the district's 84th-percentile ranking shows it is greater than the sum of its school-level rankings. Families will find solid academics in every school, but attendance and recent test declines deserve close attention.