West Bolivar High School

West Bolivar High School in Rosedale, MS, is a combined junior/senior high school serving 227 students in grades 7–12, and it sits within the West Bolivar Consolidated School District, which ranks near the bottom of Mississippi districts at the 8th percentile. The school serves an almost entirely economically disadvantaged population, with 98.7% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, and it maintains a notably low student-teacher ratio of 10.6-to-1, meaning class sizes are relatively small.

The most serious concern for parents is chronic absenteeism: in 2023–24, 50.8% of West Bolivar students were chronically absent—more than double the state rate of 23.9% and well above the district's own 32.2%. Nearby Cleveland Central High School had a 38.7% rate, and Northside High School had 28.2%, making this a school-specific challenge rather than a regional one. This absenteeism likely contributes to the school's falling graduation rate, which dropped sharply from 91.4% in 2022–23 to 70.3% in 2024–25, now trailing both its district (77.3%) and nearby high schools. Academically, results are mixed: West Bolivar outperforms Cleveland Central in Algebra I proficiency (51.5% vs. 30.8%) and beats Northside in Biology (38.3% vs. 30.0%), but English II proficiency is a major weakness at just 17.2%, far below both neighboring schools and the state average.

There is encouraging news in the middle grades. Eighth-grade ELA proficiency jumped from 5.7% in 2023–24 to 26.8% in 2025–26, and 8th-grade math rose from 8.6% to 24.4%. Algebra I proficiency also nearly doubled in one year from 25.6% to 51.5%. However, high-school-level outcomes remain the weak link: English II has been stuck in the mid-to-high teens for four consecutive years, and Biology proficiency dropped from 51.1% to 38.3%. While the school's state percentile rank improved from 3% to 8%, that progress could be fragile unless the absenteeism crisis is addressed. Given that nearby schools serve equally high-poverty populations but see far lower absenteeism, West Bolivar's challenges appear tied to school-specific factors, and until attendance improves, recent test-score gains may not translate into higher graduation rates. It is a school with real signs of improvement, but one where parents should pay close attention to attendance and high-school readiness.