Summary:
Zip code 39208 is home to exactly one high school: Pearl High School, which serves grades 9 through 12 with an enrollment of 1,278 students. The school belongs to Pearl Public Schools, a district ranked 44th out of 134 districts in Mississippi with a 3-star rating. Pearl High School has a student-teacher ratio of 14.1 to 1, and 57.98% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a predominantly low-income population.
Pearl High School's graduation rate is a clear strength: 95.7% in 2024-2025, above the district's 95.3% and well above the state's 89.2%. However, the school currently ranks 139th out of 224 Mississippi high schools for 2025-2026, placing it in the 38th percentile with a 2-star rating. That is a steep fall from 2024-2025, when it ranked 79th with a 3-star rating. In subject testing, Algebra I proficiency is the biggest red flag, with only 42.9% of students proficient in 2025-2026 versus 66.0% statewide. English II proficiency also dropped sharply from 60.9% to 43.9%, now below the state's 49.3%. Biology remains a relative bright spot at 64.4% proficiency, slightly above the state's 63.1%.
English II saw the most dramatic one-year collapse, falling 17 percentage points and flipping from 11.4 points above the state average to 5.4 points below it. Algebra I has been weak for two straight years, with the gap to the state widening from 14.3 points to 23.1 points. Chronic absenteeism is also elevated, with 26.3% of students chronically absent in 2023-2024, higher than both the district's 19.9% and the state's 23.9%. Despite these challenges, the school's 95.7% graduation rate shows students are still completing high school at a high rate. The 2024-2025 school year demonstrated that Pearl High School is capable of outperforming state averages, so the 2025-2026 declines in English II and Algebra I, combined with attendance issues, represent key areas for parents to watch.
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