Summary:
Zip code 38635 (Holly Springs, MS) is served by two high schools: H. W. Byers High School, a 5–12 school in the Marshall County School District, and Holly Springs High School, a 9–12 school in the Holly Springs School District. Both schools face significant challenges, including high poverty and chronic absenteeism, but they show different strengths.
H. W. Byers High School is the higher-performing school academically, ranking 157th out of 224 high schools (2 stars) versus Holly Springs’ 187th (1 star). Despite 99.17% of Byers students qualifying for free/reduced lunch compared to 84.03% at Holly Springs, Byers outperforms its counterpart on most end-of-course tests. In 2025–2026, Byers led in Algebra I (56.5% vs 41.3%) and English II (40.0% vs 28.3%), while Holly Springs edged Byers in Biology (52.5% vs 51.0%). Byers also showed strong gains in middle-grades math and science, including an impressive jump in 8th-grade math from 10.4% to 39.4% proficiency.
Holly Springs, however, excels at keeping students through graduation, with a 95.5% graduation rate that exceeds both Byers (88.6%) and the state average (89.2%). Both schools struggle with chronic absenteeism—35.4% at Byers and 43.3% at Holly Springs versus the state’s 23.9%—and English II is the weakest subject for both. Overall, while most proficiency rates fall below state averages, H. W. Byers High School demonstrates that meaningful academic progress is possible even in high-poverty settings, making it the stronger overall choice academically, while Holly Springs’ graduation rate is a notable bright spot.
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