Forrest County School District

The Forrest County School District serves approximately 2,124 students across six schools in southeastern Mississippi, with a mix of three PK-8 attendance centers (South Forrest, Dixie, and Earl Travillion), two PK-6 elementary schools (Rawls Springs and North Forrest Elementary), and one 7-12 high school (North Forrest High). The district overall ranks in the 72nd percentile of Mississippi districts with a 4-star rating, but individual schools range from the 83rd to the 18th percentile, revealing a wide internal performance gap. Dixie Attendance Center is the district's flagship, consistently ranking in the 83rd-86th percentile with exceptional 5th-grade scores (83.4% ELA and 81.2% math proficiency) and the lowest poverty rate at 66.5%. North Forrest High School is the most improved, jumping from the 51st to the 78th percentile in one year, with a 95.8% graduation rate, strong Algebra I (80.3%) and Biology (75.6%) end-of-course results, and the district's lowest chronic absenteeism at 18.3%.

At the other end of the spectrum, Earl Travillion Attendance Center is the district's most challenged school, ranking in the 18th percentile with a 1-star rating and the highest poverty rate at 96.9% free/reduced lunch. Its test scores are critically low across nearly every grade and subject, including just 16.6% proficiency in 8th-grade ELA and 19.2% in 4th-grade ELA. South Forrest Attendance Center is the largest school with 604 students and shows strong middle-grades math (83.3% in 7th-grade math), but it also has the district's highest chronic absenteeism (26.1%) and highest student-teacher ratio (16.6). The middle tier includes Rawls Springs Attendance Center (54th percentile) and North Forrest Elementary School (60th percentile in 2024-25), both showing pockets of early-elementary excellence but struggling to sustain results into later grades.

Several patterns stand out for parents. First, the gap between Dixie and Earl Travillion is stark—47.5 percentage points in 4th-grade ELA alone—showing that school quality varies dramatically even within one district. Second, high poverty does not automatically mean low performance, as North Forrest High proves with a 90% poverty rate yet strong outcomes. Third, grade-level swings within schools are common, such as Dixie's 5th-grade ELA dropping from 83.4% to 42.9% in 6th grade, suggesting transition-year challenges rather than fixed school quality. Science is a relative district strength, while 6th grade emerges as a trouble spot at multiple schools. Overall, Forrest County offers bright spots in Dixie and North Forrest High, but families should weigh grade-level data carefully, especially for middle-school transitions.