Summary:
Zip code 39159, located in the rural Mississippi Delta region around Rolling Fork, contains just one elementary school: South Delta Elementary School, serving grades PK–5 with 234 students. Because this is the only elementary school in the area, the analysis focuses entirely on this campus, which is part of the South Delta School District—a district currently ranked 117th out of 134 in Mississippi.
South Delta Elementary serves a student body where 100% qualify for free or reduced lunch, with a favorable 13:1 student-teacher ratio and a chronic absenteeism rate of 23.2% that matches the state average and sits far below the district's 34.1%. The school has shown notable momentum, improving its statewide ranking from the 9th percentile in 2024–2025 to the 20th percentile in 2025–2026, and moving from a 0-star to a 1-star rating. Academic gains were especially strong in 5th grade English Language Arts, where proficiency jumped from 25.9% to 50.0%, and in 5th grade science, which reached 63.4% proficiency—within 8.1 points of the state average. Science is clearly a relative bright spot, outperforming every math and ELA score at the school.
Despite this progress, South Delta Elementary still trails state averages substantially in most subjects. Math is the weakest area, with proficiency rates ranging from 20% to 30% across grades 3–5 compared to state averages near 50%; 5th grade math shows the largest gap at 29.6 percentage points below the state. ELA scores are closer but still lag, with the smallest gap in 5th grade at just 5.8 points. The school's 100% economic disadvantage rate does not fully explain the performance picture, as attendance is solid and science proficiency is relatively strong—areas of resilience the school can build on. With no local peer schools for comparison, the most meaningful benchmarks are year-over-year improvements and state averages, both of which show a school making real, if uneven, progress.
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