Wilkinson County Elementary

Wilkinson County Elementary is a PK–5 school in Woodville, Mississippi, serving 306 students in a rural community near the Louisiana border. The school belongs to the Wilkinson County School District, which ranks last among all 134 Mississippi districts, and the school itself has earned a 0-star rating every year since 2018–2019. For the 2025–2026 school year, Wilkinson County Elementary ranked 370th out of 377 elementary schools statewide, placing it in the bottom 2 percent of schools in Mississippi.

Reading and math proficiency rates are dramatically below state averages. In 2025–2026, only about 15–20 percent of students in grades 3 through 5 were proficient in English Language Arts, compared to a state average of roughly 48–56 percent. Math proficiency was similarly low, with only 15.7 percent of third graders, 16.6 percent of fourth graders, and 17.4 percent of fifth graders meeting grade-level standards. The widest gap is in 5th-grade science, where 28.2 percent of students were proficient versus 71.5 percent statewide — a 43-point difference. In 2023–2024, 3rd-grade math proficiency was just 1.9 percent, meaning roughly 98 percent of students were below grade level. While math has improved since then, the improvement comes from an exceptionally low baseline.

There are a few relative positives. Chronic absenteeism was 19.7 percent in 2023–2024, below the state average of 23.9 percent, though it spiked to nearly 40 percent in 2021–2022. The student-teacher ratio is also modest, ranging from about 12.5:1 to 14.6:1. However, the school's performance has declined sharply over time — it earned a 2-star rating in 2017–2018 with a rank in the 33rd percentile, but has been in the bottom 7 percent of schools since 2018–2019. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced lunch, reflecting a high-poverty community that faces significant challenges. There are no other schools within 20 miles of Wilkinson County Elementary, making the state averages the most useful comparison for families evaluating the school.