Summary:
ZIP code 39507 in Gulfport, Mississippi is home to three public elementary schools—Bayou View Elementary, Anniston Elementary, and Pass Road Elementary—serving grades PK through 5 with a combined enrollment of approximately 1,497 students, all part of the Gulfport School District, which holds a 4-star rating and ranks 37th out of 134 Mississippi districts.
Bayou View Elementary is the clear standout, ranked #1 in Mississippi for 2025-2026 with a 5-star rating and roughly 88.8% average proficiency across all reported MAAP tests—far ahead of Anniston Elementary's 54.1% and Pass Road Elementary's 56.3%. It achieves this while serving a student body with 100% free/reduced lunch eligibility and a chronic absenteeism rate of just 7.2%, compared to 17.8% at Anniston Elementary and 20.0% at Pass Road Elementary. Anniston has slipped from 4 stars to 3 stars over three years, dropping from 107th to 157th in state rankings. Pass Road, the smallest school with the lowest student-teacher ratio at 13.6, improved to a 147th-place ranking and has now overtaken Anniston.
All three schools serve high-poverty populations, yet Bayou View's success shows that poverty does not determine academic outcomes. Chronic absenteeism is the clearest separator: Bayou View's rate is less than half of Anniston's and about one-third of Pass Road's. Smaller class sizes did not predict higher performance, as Pass Road has the lowest student-teacher ratio but scores closer to Anniston than to Bayou View. Across all three schools, math is the common weakness, with 5th grade math especially challenging—even Bayou View's 76.3% is its lowest subject result, while Anniston (45.2%) and Pass Road (39.7%) fall below the state average. Families should also note that year-to-year test scores swing considerably at Anniston and Pass Road due to small grade-level cohorts. For parents in this area, Bayou View is the clear top choice, while Pass Road's recent upward trend makes it one to watch.
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