Summary:
Zip code 38860 in Okolona, Mississippi contains one elementary school — Okolona Elementary School — serving grades K-5 with 238 students in the Okolona School District. The school serves an entirely economically disadvantaged population, with 100% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, yet its chronic absenteeism rate of 12.9% is well below the state average of 23.9%, suggesting strong attendance and engagement despite challenging circumstances.
Okolona Elementary currently ranks in the bottom fifth of Mississippi elementary schools, at the 17th percentile with a 1-star rating, after improving to the 34th percentile in 2024-2025 and then falling back in 2025-2026. The strongest academic area is 3rd grade mathematics, where 51.5% of students are proficient, slightly above the state average of 48.8% — the only subject and grade combination where the school beats the state. Fifth grade science is also a relative strength, with 60.7% proficiency making it the school's highest-performing subject, although it trails the state average of 71.5%.
The most urgent concern is a dramatic drop in 3rd grade English Language Arts, falling from 41.8% proficiency in 2024-2025 to just 17.2% in 2025-2026, a decline of nearly 25 percentage points that likely drove the school's ranking drop. Upper-grade mathematics is also critically weak, with only 29.4% of 4th graders and 20.7% of 5th graders proficient in math, far below state averages. Because Okolona Elementary is the only school in its district, district and school test results are identical, so the most meaningful comparisons are against Mississippi state averages. With a student-teacher ratio of 15.9:1, the school's genuine strengths are 3rd grade math and 5th grade science, while reading and upper-grade math need urgent attention.
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