Summary:
Zip code 38654 (Olive Branch, Mississippi) is home to three public high schools—Lewisburg High School, Center Hill High School, and Olive Branch High School—all serving grades 9-12 within the DeSoto County School District, a district ranked above average statewide.
Lewisburg High School is the clear academic leader, ranking 5th in Mississippi with a 100% graduation rate and the highest proficiency scores in every core subject, despite having the smallest share of economically disadvantaged students. Center Hill High School offers steady, reliable performance with a 96.3% graduation rate and a 4-star rating, solidly above district averages in most subjects. Olive Branch High School is the most improved school, jumping 23 spots in state rank to 47th, and it remarkably matches Lewisburg in Biology proficiency (about 82%) while serving a student body with over half qualifying for free/reduced lunch. However, Olive Branch lags in English II, with only 47% proficiency—below both the district and state averages—while the other two schools exceed those benchmarks.
Chronic absenteeism is a district-wide concern, with all three schools well above state and district averages; even at top-ranked Lewisburg, 46.9% of students are chronically absent. Yet graduation rates remain strong across the board, from 96.3% at Center Hill to 100% at Lewisburg. Interestingly, the school with the lowest student-teacher ratio (Olive Branch, 13.8) does not post the highest test scores, showing that classroom size alone doesn't drive outcomes. Families in this zip code have meaningful choices within one district, but those choices come with different socioeconomic profiles and academic trade-offs—Lewisburg is the elite flagship, Center Hill is the dependable middle option, and Olive Branch is the improving school with notable strengths in science but room for growth in literacy.
Thank you for your feedback!