Summary:
ZIP code 39063 (Durant, MS) is served by two public schools — Durant Elementary School (grades K–5, 242 students) and Williams-Sullivan Middle School (grades 6–8, 192 students) — both part of the Holmes County Consolidated district, which ranks 116 out of 134 districts in Mississippi with a 1-star rating. There is no high school in the ZIP code, so students must leave the area after 8th grade. Both schools serve 100% economically disadvantaged students, yet neither school should be judged by the district's low overall rating alone.
Both schools consistently outperform their district average in nearly every tested subject and grade level. Durant Elementary School improved from a 1-star to a 2-star rating and achieved 5th grade science proficiency of 76.7%, surpassing both the district (60.4%) and the state (71.5%). Williams-Sullivan Middle School posted a remarkable turnaround in 8th grade science, jumping from 32% to 61.4% — also above the state average (57.8%). Attendance is a clear strength: chronic absenteeism is just 17.8% at Durant and an exceptional 9.3% at Williams-Sullivan, compared to 30.9% districtwide and 23.9% statewide. Williams-Sullivan also enjoys a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.2 versus Durant's 16.1.
The most pressing concerns are early literacy and middle school math, with both schools well below state averages in these areas — for example, Durant 3rd grade ELA proficiency is 19.4% versus the state's 48.5%, and Williams-Sullivan 6th grade math is 18.0% versus the state's 52.7%. Despite its smaller class sizes, Williams-Sullivan's overall proficiency (30.0%) trails Durant's (43.6%), indicating that class size alone does not drive results. Parents should also be aware that small grade-level cohorts can cause significant year-to-year score swings, so individual results should be interpreted with caution. Overall, these schools offer strong science instruction and excellent attendance, but families should plan for the absence of a local high school.
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