Summary:
The Simpson County School District in Mississippi operates 7 schools, including 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools, serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The district as a whole is ranked 92 out of 130 districts in the state and is rated 1 star out of 5 by SchoolDigger.
Among the schools in the district, Simpson Central School stands out as the highest performing, serving grades K-8 and ranked 178 out of 383 elementary schools in the state with a 3-star rating. The school's test scores are generally higher than the district and state averages, particularly in math and science. In contrast, while Mendenhall High School has a 1-star rating, its graduation rate of 89.4% is higher than the state average, and its performance on end-of-course exams is better than the district average, though still below the state average.
The district faces significant challenges, including a chronic absenteeism rate of 23.9% across all schools, which is much higher than the state average. Additionally, the schools in the district have very high rates of free and reduced-price lunch recipients, ranging from 82.8% to 94.12%, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage among the student population. While the district and its schools generally perform below the state average on standardized tests, there are opportunities for improvement, such as addressing chronic absenteeism and leveraging the strengths of higher-performing schools to support the improvement of lower-performing ones.
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