Nettleton School District

The Nettleton School District serves about 994 students across four schools—Nettleton Primary School, Nettleton Elementary School, Nettleton Junior High, and Nettleton High School—in Nettleton, Mississippi, spanning kindergarten through 12th grade. The district ranks 60th out of 134 Mississippi districts, earning a 3-star rating, with high poverty levels (roughly 81% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch) but favorable student–teacher ratios averaging about 13:1. Nettleton Elementary is the clear academic standout, ranking in the 69th percentile of Mississippi elementary schools with 3 stars, while Nettleton Junior High (40th percentile) and Nettleton High School (44th percentile) each earned 2 stars.

Nettleton Elementary has shown remarkable improvement, jumping from the 36th percentile in 2022-23 to the 69th percentile in 2025-26, despite more than 82% of its students qualifying for free/reduced lunch. Its 3rd and 4th grade students outperform the state in both reading and math by wide margins. Nettleton Primary School, serving grades K-2, has the district's lowest chronic absenteeism rate at 15.8%, well below the state average of 23.9%. Nettleton High School stands out for its 92.5% graduation rate (above the state's 89.2%) and strong Biology proficiency at 74.4% versus the state's 63.1%, a dramatic jump of nearly 27 points from the prior year.

The district's most urgent concern is the 8th grade "cliff" at Nettleton Junior High, where ELA proficiency plunges to 14.5% and math to 27.6%, both far below state averages. The junior high's scores also swing dramatically from year to year, reflecting small cohorts. Chronic absenteeism is a high school crisis, not district-wide: 47.1% of high school students are chronically absent, nearly double the state average, while the other three schools are at or below it. Science is a hidden strength at multiple grade levels, and the district's early elementary performance suggests that school practices matter more than poverty demographics. However, parents should watch the transition into 5th grade, where math scores drop significantly below state levels.