Summary:
Elementary Schools in zip code 39456 consist of a single school, Mclain Attendance Center, a small K-8 school serving 160 students in the rural Mc Lain, MS area. Although classified as an elementary school, it functions as a K-8 attendance center within the Greene County Schools district. With 98.12% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and a favorable 11.2:1 student-teacher ratio, the school faces significant socioeconomic challenges while maintaining a structure that could support personalized instruction.
Academically, Mclain Attendance Center shows a clear split by grade level and subject. The upper grades are genuine bright spots: 7th grade ELA proficiency (42.9%) exceeds both the district (38.6%) and state (36.7%), while 8th grade ELA (50.0%) and science (64.3%) also outperform district and state averages. In fact, 8th grade science surpasses the district by 3.3 points and the state by 6.5 points. However, mathematics proficiency in the middle elementary grades is strikingly low, with only 12.5% of 5th graders and 11.1% of 6th graders proficient in math—compared to state rates of 49.6% and 52.7%, respectively. This suggests a critical need for targeted math intervention, particularly in grades 5 and 6.
Despite its high-poverty profile, the school’s chronic absenteeism rate of 17.2% is 6.7 percentage points better than the state average (23.9%) and 2.7 points better than the district (19.9%), indicating strong student engagement and family commitment. The school’s state ranking has declined from the 47th percentile in 2018-2019 to the 14th percentile in 2025-2026, a significant relative drop even as the absolute rank moved from 210 to 325. For a single-school zip code, Mclain Attendance Center serves as the educational hub of its community. Its upper-grade successes in literacy and science provide a strong foundation, while addressing math deficits in the middle elementary grades could reverse the school’s downward trajectory and lift its overall standing.
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