The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Science. The lowest is 26% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Joel E. Smillow Prep
Joel E. Smilow Prep is a single-school charter district in Jackson, Mississippi, serving grades five through eight. It operates as its own district under the state designation "Smilow Prep Charter School," and the district brief turned up little beyond static directory and accountability information, so there is not much to report by way of recent programmatic or leadership changes. What is available is a focused picture of a middle-grades charter school with state assessment results across all four grade levels it serves.
The student body is nearly entirely Black. A very small number of students identify as Hispanic, white, or multiracial. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not reported, so it is not possible to characterize the economic profile from the available figures. English-learner and special-education counts were also missing. A parent considering this school may want to ask directly about student support services, since the published data does not speak to those populations.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessment, math proficiency sits in a modest range across the four grades. Fifth and sixth grade land somewhat higher, eighth grade is in a similar neighborhood, and seventh grade is the weakest of the four. None of the math results reach what would be considered a strong proficiency rate for a middle school. English language arts follows a similar pattern but with a somewhat brighter fifth-grade result. From there, ELA proficiency declines through sixth and seventh before ticking back up slightly in eighth grade. The seventh-grade ELA figure is the lowest across both subjects and all grades. A parent may want to look into what is happening instructionally in the seventh-grade year, since that is where the data is softest across both math and reading.
Science is the standout subject. Fifth-grade science proficiency is strong, well above the math and ELA rates for that same grade. Eighth-grade science is also the highest of the eighth-grade results, though it settles below the fifth-grade science level. The fifth-grade science result in particular suggests that some students are performing well when the curriculum and instruction come together, and it raises a fair question about why that level of success does not carry as fully into the upper middle grades.
Because Smilow Prep stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. That is a function of the grade band, not a gap in the data. There is also no high school course access, AP, dual-credit, or career-pathway information to discuss, since those offerings belong to schools serving older students. Participation rates for the state assessments were not available, which limits how confidently one can read the proficiency numbers, though the tested counts across grades suggest most enrolled students did sit for the exams.
Locale classification was not provided, and the community and economic context section was empty. Housing data was not available for this entity. No civil-rights data on discipline, access, or staffing was included, and no program offerings beyond what can be inferred from the grade band were listed. The comparison fact-set was also absent, so this school cannot be positioned against neighboring districts or charter schools from the supplied data.
What the picture does support is this: Smilow Prep is a small-to-mid-size middle-grades charter school in Jackson serving a predominantly Black student population, with a clear strength in science, uneven math and ELA results that soften notably in the seventh-grade year, and limited publicly available information about the support services, economic profile, and community context that would help a parent complete the assessment. A family weighing this school would benefit from a direct conversation with school leadership about academic trends in the upper grades, student support structures, and the transition path into high school.
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