Tunica School District

Tunica School District in Mississippi serves approximately 1,598 students across five schools — three elementary schools (Robinsonville Elementary School, Tunica Elementary School, and Dundee Elementary School), one middle school (Tunica Middle School), and one high school (Rosa Fort High) — in a rural Mississippi area where virtually every student comes from an economically disadvantaged household, with free/reduced lunch rates ranging from 99.68% to 100%. The district ranks 71st out of 134 Mississippi districts, placing it at the 47th percentile with a two-star rating, and student-teacher ratios are relatively low district-wide.

Rosa Fort High is the district's clear standout, jumping from the 32nd percentile to the 59th percentile in a single year to earn a 3-star rating. Its Algebra I proficiency rate of 89.3% far exceeds the state average of 66%, and its graduation rate of 89.4% slightly tops the state rate of 89.2%. Dundee Elementary School stands out for attendance, with a chronic absenteeism rate of just 8.3% compared to the district's 29.2%, and it posted the district's best single-grade ELA result with 60% proficiency in 4th grade ELA. Tunica Middle School shows notable strength in math, with 8th grade math proficiency of 53.6% above the state's 51.4%, while Tunica Elementary School has shown steady improvement in its state ranking and exceeded the state average in 3rd grade math.

Chronic absenteeism is a serious district-wide issue — Rosa Fort High (33.9%), Robinsonville Elementary School (32.6%), and Tunica Middle School (31.5%) all exceed 30%, though Dundee's 8.3% proves high poverty does not have to mean high absenteeism. Math is a clear strength across the district, while English Language Arts lags significantly — especially in middle school, where proficiency rates run about 20 points behind state averages. Elementary science is a bright spot, with Robinsonville Elementary School's 5th grade science proficiency at 74.5% versus the state's 66.3%. The most pressing challenges are chronic absenteeism, elementary and middle school literacy, and inconsistent outcomes across the elementary schools.