Charleston High School

Charleston High School in Charleston, Mississippi, is a public high school serving 273 students in grades 9–12 as part of the East Tallahatchie School District, operating in a deeply high-poverty area of the Mississippi Delta where nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

The school’s academic picture is marked by dramatic swings. In 2025-2026, Charleston jumped to the 50th percentile statewide with a 3-star rating, a striking rebound from the previous year’s 5th-percentile, 0-star rating. This volatility appears in subject-level results too. The school is clearly math-positive: Algebra I proficiency reached 91.8% in 2025-2026, far above the state average of 66%, and Biology (60%) came close to the state mark. But literacy lags badly, with English II proficiency at just 27.3% versus a state average near 49%. Graduation rates tell a more encouraging story, rising from 72.6% in 2021-2022 to 88.3% in 2024-2025, nearly matching the state average. However, chronic absenteeism is a serious concern—47.6% of students were chronically absent in 2023-2024, about double the statewide rate.

Compared with nearby West Tallahatchie High School, Charleston shows a mixed profile. Charleston has the stronger current state ranking, a higher graduation rate, and far better Algebra I results (91.8% vs. 50%). But West Tallahatchie outperformed Charleston in English II in the most recent years, and also led in U.S. History proficiency in 2024-2025 (64.9% vs. 53.9%). Both schools serve essentially all economically disadvantaged students and struggle with chronic absenteeism, though Charleston’s rate is even higher than West Tallahatchie’s. Families should see Charleston as a school with notable strengths in math and an improving graduation rate, but with persistent literacy gaps and attendance challenges that warrant close attention.