Poplarville School District

The Poplarville School District serves approximately 1,969 students across four schools — Poplarville High School, Poplarville Lower Elementary, Middle School Of Poplarville, and Poplarville Upper Elementary — spanning grades PK through 12. The district holds a 5-star rating, ranking 8th out of 134 districts in Mississippi, despite more than half of its students (57.4%) qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Two elementary campuses feed one middle school and one high school, with student-teacher ratios ranging from 12.4 at the high school to 16.8 at the lower elementary.

Poplarville High School is the district's flagship, ranking 11th out of 224 high schools statewide with a 96.1% graduation rate — well above the state's 89.2% — and the district's lowest student-teacher ratio at 12.4. It also posts wide proficiency margins over state averages, including 88.5% in Biology versus 63.1% statewide. Middle School Of Poplarville is the most improved school, climbing from 97th to 47th in state rankings over three years, and leads the district with just 17.0% chronic absenteeism. Poplarville Upper Elementary has likewise surged from 135th to 65th, with 5th-grade science proficiency at 89.8% versus 71.5% statewide. Poplarville Lower Elementary, serving PK–2, stands out as the area for attention: at 25.1%, its chronic absenteeism rate is the highest in the district and the only one above the state average of 23.9%.

Science is a district-wide strength, with proficiency rates far exceeding state averages from 5th grade through high school. English Language Arts is the relative weak spot, as the gap narrows considerably in upper grades — 8th-grade ELA sits at 44.9% versus 40.9% statewide. The improving trajectories of the middle and upper elementary schools — from roughly the 60th to the low 80th percentile — point to effective recent instructional changes. Notably, high poverty levels have not prevented strong outcomes. The key concern remains early-elementary attendance, which is an important early-warning predictor for later academic success.