Summary:
Zip code 38659 is served by just one elementary school: Mary Reid School, a small K-4 campus in Potts Camp, Mississippi, enrolling 270 students in the Marshall County School District. With nearly 99% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, this is an extremely high-poverty school, and the student-teacher ratio sits at 15.3. Mary Reid School is a relative academic strength within its district, beating the Marshall County School District average in 7 of 8 subject-grade comparisons, including 3rd grade math (59.6% vs. 41.3% in 2024-2025) and 4th grade math (44.5% vs. 41.5% in 2025-2026).
However, Mary Reid School generally trails the state average in most tested areas. For example, 2025-2026 3rd grade English Language Arts proficiency was 37.7% versus the state's 48.5%, and 4th grade math came in at 44.5% versus the state's 51.5%. The school's strongest recent result was 2024-2025 3rd grade math, where 59.6% of students were proficient, surpassing the state average of 53.3%. That same category fell sharply to 39.7% in 2025-2026, a 19.9-point drop that may reflect differences between student cohorts rather than a true decline in instruction. State ranking also slipped from the 45th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 37th percentile in 2025-2026, suggesting other schools across Mississippi are improving faster.
On a positive note, chronic absenteeism at Mary Reid School was 19.7% in 2023-2024, better than both the district (26.2%) and state (23.9%) averages — an encouraging sign of engagement given the high poverty rate. Still, roughly one in five students is chronically absent, and the school remains in the lower-middle range of elementary schools statewide. With only 270 students across K-4, grade-level proficiency rates are based on small cohorts, so year-to-year swings should be interpreted with caution. Overall, Mary Reid School is a solid performer within its local district, but it faces real challenges in closing the gap with the rest of Mississippi.
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