Coahoma County School District

Coahoma County School District is a small, mostly rural Mississippi district serving 5 schools across grades K-12, with about 1,009 students enrolled. The district includes three elementary schools—Lyon Elementary, Jonestown Elementary, and Friars Point Elementary—plus one middle school, Coahoma County Junior High School, and one high school, Coahoma County High School. The district ranks 115th out of 134 Mississippi districts, and every school serves a very high-poverty population, with free/reduced lunch eligibility ranging from 95.9% to 100%.

Jonestown Elementary stands out as the district's strongest school, ranking in the 33rd percentile statewide and improving significantly from the prior year. Its students posted 68.2% proficiency in 6th grade math and 73.3% in 5th grade science, both above state averages. Lyon Elementary and Friars Point Elementary rank in the 21st and 27th percentiles, respectively, with Friars Point showing strong 4th and 5th grade math results. In contrast, Coahoma County High School ranks essentially last in the state—223rd out of 224 high schools—with proficiency rates far below state averages in Algebra I (26.3% vs. 66.0%), English II (21.0% vs. 49.3%), and Biology (21.7% vs. 63.1%). Yet its graduation rate of 90.7% is slightly above the state average.

Coahoma County Junior High School also struggles, ranking in the 17th percentile statewide and falling below state averages in every subject. Chronic absenteeism is a key concern, affecting 29.8% of high school students and 30.0% of Friars Point Elementary students, while Jonestown (17.6%) and Lyon (16.7%) keep absenteeism below 18%. Small class sizes create dramatic year-to-year swings—such as Friars Point's 3rd grade ELA dropping from 38.1% to 6.3%—so results should be interpreted cautiously. The most notable trend is the academic slide from elementary to high school: students show pockets of competitive performance in early grades but lose ground by secondary school, making attendance and early math acceleration the district's highest-priority levers.