S.V. Marshall Middle School

S.V. Marshall Middle School is a public middle school in Lexington, Mississippi, serving 321 students in grades 6–8 within the Holmes County Consolidated School District. The school serves a community where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, a reflection of the high-poverty area. Overall, the school's state ranking is low—in the 5th percentile for 2025–26, with 0 stars—but a closer look at the data reveals a more nuanced picture.

Compared with nearby Williams-Sullivan Middle School and O.M. McNair Middle School, S.V. Marshall actually shows relative strength in 6th and 7th grade math. In 2025–26, 6th grade math proficiency was 30.4%, beating Williams-Sullivan's 18.0% and McNair's 13.8%. 7th grade math was also ahead at 38.4%. However, the school loses significant ground by 8th grade: ELA proficiency drops to 9.9%, math to 16.5%, and science to 27.5%. That science result is especially striking—Williams-Sullivan's 8th graders posted 61.4% proficiency, a 34-point gap between two schools in the same district with identical poverty levels.

One genuine bright spot is attendance. Chronic absenteeism fell from 42.9% in 2020–21 to 14.8% in 2023–24, now well below the state average of 23.9%. Still, improved attendance hasn't translated into higher test scores, and the consistent dip between 7th and 8th grade suggests that transition year is a particular challenge. For parents, the bottom line is mixed: S.V. Marshall isn't the lowest-performing school in the area—it outperforms O.M. McNair in most subjects and grades—but the 8th grade slump, especially in science, is the clearest opportunity for improvement.