The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in Math. The lowest is 51% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Bay Waveland Middle School
Bay Waveland Middle School sits on Pine Street in Bay St. Louis, a small Gulf Coast city that serves as the county seat of Hancock County. The school serves grades six through eight and is part of the Bay St Louis Waveland School District. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet.
Bay St. Louis itself carries a distinct character. Publicly reported descriptions paint the Old Town district along Main Street as walkable, lined with art galleries, antique shops, boutiques, and restaurants, with the city sitting on the western shore of the Bay of St. Louis and a beachfront along the Mississippi Sound. French colonial heritage still shapes the local culture. Casino gambling has been an economic driver since the late twentieth century, and the city blends a retiree-heavy population with working families. Major employers in the broader area include NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, located west of the city, along with the Silver Slipper Casino Hotel, Hollywood Casino, the school district, and county government. The city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina drove substantial rebuilding, including a federally funded overhaul of underground utility infrastructure and new housing construction on higher ground. The downtown has been revitalized through the Mississippi Main Street program. Public transit is available via the Bay Town Trolley, and Amtrak's Mardi Gras Service connects the area to Mobile and New Orleans.
The school is moderately sized for a middle school, with enrollment balanced across the three grades. The student body is majority white, with a substantial Black population and a smaller group of students identifying as two or more races. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic profile of the community the school serves. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
On state assessments through the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program, math results are a clear strength. The majority of sixth graders reach proficiency, and seventh graders perform similarly. Eighth-grade math proficiency dips from the sixth-grade level but remains solid. Science, tested in eighth grade, shows a comparably strong proficiency rate. English language arts tells a different story. Sixth-grade ELA proficiency is moderate, and it declines across seventh and eighth grades, with fewer than half of seventh and eighth graders reaching proficiency. This pattern, where math outpaces reading and writing, is worth a parent's attention. A family considering this school may want to ask how the school supports literacy growth across the middle grades, particularly as students prepare for the transition to high school.
Participation rates for state testing were not reported in the data available, and no multi-year trend data was provided, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time.
Because Bay Waveland Middle serves only grades six through eight, there is no graduation rate to report. That absence is expected for the grade band rather than a gap in the data. No advanced course, dual-credit, or career-pathway information was provided, which is typical for a middle school, though families may want to ask the school directly about any honors, gifted, or accelerated coursework available to students in these grades. We looked for parent-relevant district-level changes such as recent bond or referendum activity but found little in the available material, so we left it out rather than guess.
The housing market in the school's zip code sits below the national benchmark but above the state benchmark for Mississippi. Home values have declined modestly over the past year. Rents are affordable relative to typical household income, and the estimated monthly cost of ownership remains within reach for many working families in the area, though current mortgage rates are a factor. The broader Hancock County area has seen growth around Diamondhead and the I-10 corridor, and Bay St. Louis has experienced modest population growth since the start of its post-Katrina recovery.
Nearby school options include two private Catholic schools on the beachfront near downtown, Saint Stanislaus College for boys in grades seven through twelve and Our Lady Academy for girls in the same grade range. Bay High School, the public high school, is located near the downtown and Old Town area, which is where Bay Waveland Middle students would typically feed.
The school fits a family looking for a traditional public middle school in a small Gulf Coast community with a walkable downtown, a beachfront, and a mix of retiree and working-family households. The math and science results are strong. The ELA results are a softer area a parent may want to look into further with the school.
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