Summary:
Covington County School District in rural Mississippi is served by a single middle school, Seminary Middle, which enrolls 365 students in grades 5–8 and is located in the small town of Seminary. Because this is the district's only middle school, its performance directly shapes the district-wide results, with the district currently ranked #68 out of 134 Mississippi districts. Seminary Middle stands out as a high-poverty school that consistently beats the odds: 99.18% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, yet the school outperforms both district and state averages in every subject tested for 2024–2025 and 2025–2026.
The school's biggest strengths are science and early-grade math. In 2025–2026, 5th graders posted extraordinary results: 88.6% proficiency in science, 71.5% in math, and 67.2% in ELA — all well above state levels, with 5th grade math a striking 21.9 points ahead of the state average. 6th and 7th grade math also remained strong at 67.0% and 65.9%, respectively. Even with these bright spots, Seminary Middle shows notable year-to-year volatility in math scores across grade levels, swinging as much as 18 points up or down between school years. The school earned its best recent ranking in 2024–2025 (70th percentile, 4 stars) before slipping to 65th percentile and 3 stars in 2025–2026.
The most pressing concerns are chronic absenteeism and eighth-grade performance. Chronic absenteeism sits at 36.0% — far above the state rate of 23.9%, meaning more than one in three students miss significant school time. Meanwhile, 8th grade ELA dropped from 42.0% to 33.4% and 8th grade math fell from 56.0% to 37.7% in 2025–2026, pushing both below state averages. If Seminary Middle can reduce absenteeism and stabilize its 8th grade results, this high-poverty school has the potential to reclaim and exceed its previous 4-star rating.
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