The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Science. The lowest is 23% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Forest Municipal School Dist
Forest Municipal School District sits in Scott County, in central Mississippi, serving the community of Forest and portions of neighboring areas. The district operates three schools: Forest Elementary, Hawkins Middle, and Forest High, covering kindergarten through twelfth grade. Enrollment is moderate for a rural Mississippi district, with the student body reflecting a distinctive demographic mix. Hispanic students make up the largest single group, followed closely by Black students, with small shares of white, multiracial, American Indian, and Asian students. This bilingual, majority-minority composition shapes the district's identity and is an everyday reality in its classrooms.
State testing results from the most recent Mississippi Academic Assessment Program cycle tell a mixed story that varies by subject and grade. In math, the district shows real strength in the early grades. Third and fourth graders reach proficiency at rates approaching or exceeding half, which is a solid foundation. That advantage narrows as students move into fifth grade and beyond. By seventh and eighth grade, math proficiency falls to the low-to-mid twenties, a substantial drop from where those same students started. A parent looking at these numbers would want to understand what changes between fourth grade and seventh, whether it is a curricular transition, staffing pattern, or something structural about how math instruction is organized at the middle school level. This is a pattern worth discussing directly with the district.
English language arts results are consistently lower across all tested grades. Proficiency in the early elementary years sits in the mid-twenties to low thirties and does not climb. By seventh grade, ELA proficiency drops to its lowest point in the district's results. The gap between the district's relative strength in early math and its persistent struggle in literacy is wide. Given the high share of Hispanic students, some readers may wonder about English learner services, but the data provided does not include English learner counts or rates, so that connection cannot be confirmed from what is available. What is clear is that literacy is the district's most pressing academic challenge, and a parent would be right to ask what reading interventions and coaching structures are in place, especially in the middle grades where the decline is steepest.
Science results, available only for fifth and eighth grades, land in the low forties. This places science between the district's stronger early math and its weaker ELA, a middling result that does not raise the same urgency as literacy but also does not stand out as a clear asset.
The district does not report graduation rate data, advanced course offerings, career or dual-credit pathways, discipline data, staffing ratios, attendance figures, or Title I status in the information available. These gaps mean the picture is incomplete on several fronts families typically care about. A parent considering Forest High would have no published evidence here about college-level course access, and a parent concerned about school climate would find no discipline or attendance data to review. The absence of these data points reflects what was available rather than any judgment about the district's practices.
Economically, the Forest area is quite affordable. Home values across the district's zip codes are well below the Mississippi state benchmark and far below national levels, with a price-to-income ratio that makes ownership attainable for many local families. The housing market has shown steady recent appreciation, but values remain modest by any standard. Rent data was not available. The community sits within a region where the unemployment rate has been stable, hovering in the low fours, which suggests a working rural economy without dramatic job market swings.
Forest Municipal School District is a small, majority-Hispanic and Black district in an affordable central Mississippi community. Its early-grade math instruction is a genuine bright spot, producing proficiency levels that many comparable rural districts would welcome. Its literacy performance, particularly in the middle grades, is the area most in need of attention and the one a parent should probe most carefully. The district's demographic profile is its defining characteristic, and families whose children thrive in bilingual, multicultural settings may find it a familiar environment. Those seeking published evidence of advanced secondary offerings or detailed climate data will need to go beyond what is available here and ask the district directly.
See more original research from School Decision →