Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 39350

Zip code 39350, covering the Philadelphia, Mississippi area and nearby Choctaw community, is served by two middle schools: Neshoba Central Middle School, a larger school serving grades 6–8 with 645 students, and Choctaw Central Middle School, a smaller school serving grades 7–8 with 210 students. These schools present very different profiles—Neshoba Central is a data-rich, high-performing public school within Neshoba County Schools, while Choctaw Central is part of the Choctaw Central Middle School district and has far less public data available.

Neshoba Central Middle School stands out academically. It has earned a consistent 5-star rating and ranks in the top 10–15% of Mississippi middle schools, with state rankings of 26th, 11th, and 14th over the past three years. The school is especially strong in mathematics—8th grade math proficiency is 84.4%, compared to the state average of 51.4%. ELA proficiency also exceeds state averages in every grade, though by smaller margins. With 70.23% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, Neshoba Central outperforms expectations given its poverty level. Its chronic absenteeism rate of 17.1% is below both the district (21.9%) and state (23.9%) averages. However, recent declines in ELA scores—including a 15.3-point drop in 7th grade—coincided with the school's state rank falling from 11th to 26th.

Choctaw Central Middle School presents a very different picture. Nearly all of its students (98.57%) qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making it an extremely high-need school. It does have a favorable student-teacher ratio of 8.9, compared to Neshoba Central's 12.3, suggesting smaller class sizes or more staff per student. However, no test scores, state rankings, or chronic absenteeism data are reported for this school, so its academic performance cannot be evaluated from available data. This data gap is a significant limitation for parents comparing the two schools. Overall, Neshoba Central stands out as a model of academic resilience in this area, while families considering Choctaw Central may want to seek additional information directly from the school.