Summary:
Zip code 38966 contains exactly one school, West Tallahatchie High School, a rural school in Webb, Mississippi, serving grades 7 through 12 within the West Tallahatchie School District. As the only school in the area, it enrolls 297 students with a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.4 to 1. Nearly the entire student body, 98.99%, qualifies for free or reduced lunch, reflecting a very high-poverty population. The school operates as both a middle school and high school, which is evident in its testing data spanning 7th grade assessments through high school end-of-course exams.
Academic performance is generally below state averages across most subjects. In both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, ELA proficiency ranged from roughly 10% to 21%, compared to state averages of 37% to 42%. Eighth grade science proficiency was 25.6% versus 57.8% statewide, a gap of more than 32 percentage points. The graduation rate is 80.0%, below the state's 89.2%, and chronic absenteeism is 41.5%, nearly double the state rate of 23.9% and well above the district's own 31.8% rate. The school's state ranking has declined over three years, falling from the 33rd percentile (2 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 17th percentile (1 star) in 2025-2026.
Despite these challenges, there are clear bright spots. In 2025-2026, 61.5% of 7th graders were proficient in math, surpassing the state average of 57.7% and representing a dramatic improvement from 24.5% the prior year. High school U.S. History proficiency reached 64.9% in 2024-2025, nearly matching the state's 69.7%, and Biology was among the closer subjects to state averages. The district ranks 113 out of 134 Mississippi districts. Parents should understand that chronic absenteeism and below-grade-level reading proficiency are the most pressing concerns, but the school shows genuine pockets of strength in mathematics and high school history that provide a foundation to build on.
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