Summary:
Zip code 38646 in Marks, Mississippi is served by two schools in the Quitman County School District: Quitman County Middle School (grades 5–8, 265 students) and Madison Palmer High School (grades 9–12, 239 students), with no elementary or alternative schools in the area.
Both schools serve 100% free/reduced lunch students and are ranked in the bottom quarter of Mississippi schools. Quitman County Middle School has consistently sat around the 17th–22nd percentile, but shows bright spots: 6th grade math jumped from 18% to 44.6% proficiency in one year, and 5th grade science improved from 34.5% to 47.8%. Madison Palmer High School is more volatile—it ranked in the 64th percentile with a 3-star rating in 2024-2025, then plunged to the 17th percentile with a 1-star rating the next year. That drop is tied to English II scores falling from 56.9% to 29.1% proficiency. On a positive note, the high school's Biology proficiency improved dramatically from 37.1% to 56.2%, and its U.S. History score (73.4%) was above the state average.
Chronic absenteeism is a major concern at Madison Palmer High School, with 37.3% of students chronically absent—well above the district’s 25.7% and state’s 23.9%. The middle school’s rate (24.3%) is much closer to normal. Student-teacher ratios also differ dramatically: the high school has a favorable 11.5 ratio versus the middle school’s 25.8, yet the high school’s performance is not consistently better, suggesting that poverty and attendance matter more than class size alone. For parents, these schools face real challenges but also show targeted subject-level improvements worth noting. The district’s 1-star rating and the high school’s attendance issues should be weighed against the genuine gains seen in middle school math and high school science.
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