Summary:
Zip code 38858 contains a single high school, Nettleton High School, serving grades 9-12 within the Nettleton School District, a small, mostly rural area with roughly 316 students enrolled at the high school. While the school holds a 2-star rating, it has improved its state ranking from 150th to 125th over the past year, moving from the 35th to the 44th percentile among Mississippi high schools. It stands out for its 92.5% graduation rate, which exceeds the state average of 89.2%, even though over 80% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, a sign of high poverty levels. The school also benefits from a low student-teacher ratio of 12.5, allowing for more individualized attention.
Academically, Nettleton shows clear strengths in science and history. In the most recent testing year, Biology proficiency jumped to 74.4%, well above the state’s 63.1% and a dramatic improvement from the prior year’s 47.5%. U.S. History proficiency is also strong at 80.7%, beating the state by 11 percentage points. However, Algebra I and English II remain below state averages, with English II particularly stagnant at 39.1% compared to the state’s 49.3%. Algebra I has made progress, narrowing the gap with the state to just 7.5 points, but the school still has room to grow in these core subjects.
The most pressing concern is chronic absenteeism. At 47.1%, Nettleton’s rate is more than double the state average of 23.9% and far exceeds the district’s own rate of 28.1%. This high rate of students missing substantial school time likely holds back achievement in math and English, despite the strong results in Biology and U.S. History. Because Nettleton is the only high school in the district, its scores and metrics directly mirror district totals. Overall, the school shows positive momentum in ranking and science performance, but addressing chronic absenteeism will be essential to turning those gains into broad, lasting success for all students.
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