The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in Math. The lowest is 23% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Winona Secondary School
Winona Secondary School sits in a small county-seat city in Montgomery County, Mississippi, a place locals call "The Crossroads" for its position at the junction of Interstate 55 and U.S. Highways 51 and 82. The town grew up around the railroad and still carries the imprint of that trading-post history, with a designated Historic District on the National Register and an abandoned depot that once served the City of New Orleans passenger line. Today the local economy leans on highway commerce and industrial investment, including a Biewer Lumber sawmill that brought new jobs to the county and a Pilot Travel Centers truck stop. The population has been declining over recent decades, and in March 2023 an EF3 tornado struck the south side of town, causing heavy damage and loss of life. The housing market here is quite affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below Mississippi's statewide level and far below national figures, making homeownership within reach for many local families.
The school serves grades seven through twelve under the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. Enrollment is moderate for a secondary school spanning six grade levels. The student body is majority Black, with a sizable White minority and small numbers of Hispanic, multiracial, and American Indian students. Every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which reflects the economic conditions of the surrounding community rather than anything about the school itself.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent reported year, the academic picture is mixed. Seventh-grade math proficiency sits at about half of tested students reaching proficient or above, a reasonably strong result for this grade band. That number drops in eighth-grade math, where fewer than a third of students scored proficient. English language arts results are weaker across both seventh and eighth grades, with roughly a quarter or less of students reaching proficiency in each. Eighth-grade science landed in between, with about four in ten students proficient. These are straightforward results, and a parent may want to look into what supports the school offers in literacy and in the transition from seventh to eighth grade, where math results dip noticeably.
We looked for several pieces of information that were not available. No graduation rate was reported in the data provided. No data on advanced course offerings, career or dual-credit pathways, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, English-learner services, or special-education enrollment appeared. This means we cannot characterize the school's program breadth, its teacher resources, or its approach to student conduct and support from the data on hand. We also did not find multi-year trend data, so we cannot say whether these proficiency results are improving, holding, or declining over time. The district brief noted a past administrative consolidation that occurred outside the recent reporting window, and no other lasting parent-relevant changes surfaced in available sources.
What the data does tell you is this. Winona Secondary is a small-town, consolidated-district secondary school serving a high-poverty community in a region grappling with population loss but also seeing industrial investment. Its seventh-grade math result is the strongest academic signal in the data. English language arts is the clearest soft spot, with both tested grades showing proficiency below the math figures. Science sits in the middle. For a family considering this school, the absence of program and outcome data beyond state test scores is a real limitation, and asking the school directly about graduation pathways, course offerings, and literacy interventions would help fill in the picture that the available data cannot.
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