The top reported proficiency rate is 72% in Science. The lowest is 40% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on I T Montgomery Elementary School
I.T. Montgomery Elementary School sits on Martin Luther King Drive in Mound Bayou, a small historically Black town in the Mississippi Delta founded by former slaves led by Isaiah T. Montgomery, the school's namesake. The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as part of the North Bolivar Consolidated School District. Mound Bayou is a quiet, primarily residential community with a short commercial strip along Edwards Avenue. US Routes 61 and a companion highway bypass the town to the west, connecting it to Cleveland a short drive south and Clarksdale a longer drive north. The town's population has been declining for years, and publicly reported sources describe a trajectory of contraction rather than growth. No major new housing developments surfaced in available research.
The school is small for its grade band, and its student body is nearly entirely African American. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which means the school serves a uniformly high-poverty population. Data on special education enrollment and English learners was not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here. The school is not a charter. Its magnet status and Title I classification were not available in the data provided.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments, math proficiency tells a reasonably encouraging story. Third grade starts below half the tested students reaching proficiency, but the rate climbs steadily through the grades, with sixth grade reaching a clear majority. This upward pattern suggests students are building skills as they move through the school. English language arts results are more uneven. Fifth grade reached half the students proficient, but fourth grade dipped well below that, and sixth grade fell back from the fifth-grade peak. The inconsistency across grades in reading is something a parent may want to look into further with the school, especially given how foundational literacy is for later academic work.
Science results, available only for fifth grade, were a bright spot. A strong majority of tested fifth graders reached proficiency, well above what the same grade showed in math or reading. This suggests the school is doing something effective in science instruction at that grade level.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or slipping over time. Participation rates were also not reported. A parent evaluating this school would be working from a single year of assessment data.
Because I.T. Montgomery serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence is expected for a school with this grade range. No Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career-pathway data applies here, as those are high school offerings. No program offerings, extracurriculars, or course-access details were provided.
The school operates within a district shaped by a past consolidation. The North Bolivar Consolidated School District was formed by merging the former North Bolivar School District with the Mound Bayou Public School District, and the board later closed John F. Kennedy High School and Shelby Middle School. Those decisions restructured attendance zones and feeder patterns across Mound Bayou, Shelby, and surrounding areas. Families considering this school may want to understand where their child would go after sixth grade, since the district's school footprint has narrowed.
No housing-value or rental data was provided for the area, so the housing market cannot be characterized here. No neighbor comparison or county-level positioning data was available either, which means the school's results cannot be placed against nearby schools in a systematic way.
What the available picture shows is a small, community-rooted elementary school in a town with deep historical identity and real economic challenges. Academic results are mixed but include genuine strengths, particularly in science and in the upper-grade math trajectory. Reading outcomes are the soft spot, varying considerably by grade. For a family in Mound Bayou, this is the local elementary option, and the data suggests it is doing some things well while facing clear room for growth in literacy.
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