Tylertown High School

Tylertown High School serves 523 students in grades 7 through 12 in the rural town of Tylertown, Mississippi, and is part of the Walthall County School District. The school operates with a student-teacher ratio of about 13.7 to 1, and a large share of its students (77% in 2024-25) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the high-poverty nature of the community.

Tylertown's overall state ranking places it in the lower third of Mississippi high schools. In the most recent ranking cycle, it came in 164th out of 224 schools (a one-star rating), after a notable jump to the 46th percentile the year before — a swing that suggests results can vary quite a bit from year to year. The graduation rate is 81.3%, below the state's 89.2% but slightly better than the district's 79.7%. When compared with nearby schools, Tylertown sits in the middle: it beats South Pike High School in most subjects, but trails West Marion High School significantly. On the Algebra I end-of-course exam, for example, 57.7% of Tylertown students scored proficient, compared with 77.9% at West Marion and 34.7% at South Pike. English II is a particular concern, with only 30.8% proficient — the lowest of the three nearby schools.

There are some bright spots worth noting. Chronic absenteeism at Tylertown is just 16.0%, dramatically better than the state average of 23.9% and far better than West Marion (32.7%) and South Pike (24.9%) — meaning students are showing up to class, even if test scores lag. Middle-school math has also shown real improvement: 8th grade math proficiency jumped from 16.3% to 39.8% in a single year. But English language arts is consistently weak across all grade levels, and the school has struggled to hold onto gains from one year to the next. For parents, the picture is mixed: a school where attendance is a real asset, math is improving, and graduation rates beat the district — but where reading and writing need the most attention.