Bankston Elementary School

Bankston Elementary School serves 254 students in grades K-6 in Greenwood, MS, as part of the Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District, which carries a 1-star rating and ranks in the bottom 10% of Mississippi districts. Bankston itself also holds a 1-star rating and ranks 326 out of 377 Mississippi schools (14th percentile) for the 2025-2026 school year. Nearly all students (99.6%) qualify for free/reduced lunch, reflecting the high-poverty context of the area. Despite these challenges, the school consistently outperforms its district in reading and math.

In 2025-2026, Bankston's English language arts proficiency exceeded the district average in every tested grade, with 3rd grade at 39.6% versus 27.3% district-wide and 5th grade at 42.5% versus 38.3%. Math proficiency also led the district in all tested grades, with gaps of roughly 8 to 11 percentage points. Among same-district elementary schools like Davis Elementary School and East Elementary School, Bankston posted the highest ELA proficiency in grades 3, 4, and 6, and the highest math proficiency in grades 3, 4, and 5. The school also has the most favorable student-teacher ratio in the area at 12.8:1, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 20.1% is better than the district (23.8%), the state (23.9%), and nearby schools like Threadgill Elementary and Claudine Brown Elementary School.

Science is a relative weakness: 5th grade science proficiency was 42.4% in 2025-2026, below the district average of 49.4% and well behind Davis Elementary School's 63.2%. The school's statewide ranking has slipped from the 30th percentile in 2020-2021 to the 14th percentile in 2025-2026, even though local performance remains relatively strong. This likely reflects small grade-level cohorts — with roughly 30–40 students per grade, a handful of students can dramatically swing scores from year to year. For parents, Bankston offers small classes and strong attendance relative to peers, but proficiency rates remain well below state averages.