Hickory Flat Attendance Center, Hickory Flat MS

Original Research by School Decision on Hickory Flat Attendance Center

Hickory Flat Attendance Center is a single-campus school serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in the Benton County School District, one of Mississippi's small rural county systems. The school sits in the town of Hickory Flat, a very small community along Mississippi Highway 178 in Benton County. The town is almost entirely residential with limited commercial activity, and the population has been declining over recent census cycles. Publicly reported sources note that the town was named for a nearby grove of hickory trees, and a historic general store on Spruce Street was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2025. U.S. Route 78 provides regional freeway access via a nearby exit. No major employers were identified for the town, and no public transit, library branch, or named parks appear in available sources. Daily life here is vehicle-dependent by nature.

The school's enrollment is small for a campus spanning all thirteen grade levels, which means students grow up alongside the same peer group from early childhood through graduation. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Black students and a very small number of Hispanic and multiracial students. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a reflection of the area's limited economic resources. The town's median household income sits well below the national median. Housing in the area is quite affordable by national standards, with typical home values well below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent year-over-year appreciation has been modest. No rent data was available for the area.

On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent school year, math proficiency is generally solid across the elementary and middle grades. Third and fourth grade math results are strong, with a clear majority of tested students scoring proficient or above. Fourth grade stands out as the highest-performing grade in math. Fifth grade math is the soft spot, with fewer than half of students reaching proficiency. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade math results hold in a middle range, with a majority or near-majority proficient.

English language arts results are more uneven. Fifth grade ELA is a bright spot, with a strong majority proficient, but seventh grade ELA drops sharply, and eighth grade is also low. Third grade ELA sits below the halfway mark. Science results at the tested elementary and middle grades are solid, with a majority of students proficient at both grade levels.

A parent looking at these results would see a school that does reasonably well in math and science across most grades but has clear stretches of weakness in ELA, particularly in the middle grades. The seventh grade ELA result is low enough that a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking what instruction and interventions are in place for literacy at that level. The fifth grade math dip is also worth a conversation.

Several pieces of data a parent might want were not available. No high school assessment results were included, even though the school serves grades nine through twelve, so the picture here is limited to the elementary and middle grades. No graduation rate was provided. No Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career-pathway course information was available. No staffing, discipline, attendance, or civil-rights data was included. Special-population data for students with individualized education programs and English learners was missing. Without these pieces, it is hard to assess the full upper-grade experience or the level of support services. We looked for recent district-level changes that might affect families and found little publicly reported, so we left that out rather than guess.

What the available evidence describes is a small, rural, community-rooted school where every student comes from an economically disadvantaged household and where academic results in the tested grades are mixed but tilt positive in math and science. The peer environment is intimate and stable. The housing market is accessible. The gaps in the data, particularly for the high school years, mean a family considering this school should ask directly about graduation outcomes, upper-grade course offerings, and support services before making a decision.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

80-89%Cohort of 37 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

241 schools plotted. 29 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 58% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 43% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 32% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 42% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 41% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 38% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 37% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 36% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 62% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median

Grade 650%

School 50% · District 45% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 28% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Science

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 61% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 55% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median

This schoolBENTON CO SCHOOL DIST, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.