Hattiesburg

The Hattiesburg Public School District serves 8 schools with 3,918 students in grades K-12 — 5 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 1 high school. The district ranks 48th of 134 Mississippi districts with a 3-star rating, placing it in the 64th percentile, though that overall rating masks wide variation between schools.

Rowan Elementary is the district's standout, ranking 72nd of 377 elementary schools with 4 stars and outpacing state averages by double digits in several subjects despite 99.5% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch. Woodley Elementary ranks 91st with 4 stars and is an early-grade powerhouse, hitting 88.9% 3rd grade math proficiency, though its scores fade by 5th grade. Hawkins Elementary is a science anomaly with a district-best 90.7% 5th grade science proficiency despite low ELA and math scores. Meanwhile, Thames Elementary has fallen sharply from the 59th to the 29th percentile over two years, making it the district's lowest-ranked elementary school.

At the secondary level, Hattiesburg High School graduates 94.4% of students — well above the state's 89.2% — but proficiency is mixed, with Algebra I above state while English II and Biology lag. Chronic absenteeism peaks at secondary schools, hitting 28.5% at the high school and 26.1% at N R Burger Middle. Districtwide, elementary math proficiency drops sharply between 3rd and 5th grade, and several schools saw year-over-year declines. With near-universal poverty across all schools, the large achievement gap between Rowan and Thames suggests school-level practices matter greatly.