The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in Science. The lowest is 25% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on D.m. Smith Elementary
D.M. Smith Elementary sits on Martin Luther King Drive in Cleveland, Mississippi, serving grades three through six as part of the Cleveland School District. It is a small school by any measure, with a student body that is nearly entirely Black, and every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is not a charter, and its magnet status is not recorded in the data we received.
Cleveland is a mixed-use Delta town that doubles as one of two county seats for Bolivar County. Delta State University sits on the north side of town, and the downtown core along the Greenwoo Street corridor holds locally owned shops, the Bolivar County Courthouse, and several museums, including the Grammy Museum Mississippi. The town is largely car-dependent, with no fixed-route public transit. Publicly reported sources describe a population that has been declining over recent census cycles, and the housing market reflects that pressure. The typical home value in the school's zip code sits well below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent year-over-year values have moved downward rather than up. For a family buying, the price-to-income ratio is modest compared with national norms, which keeps homeownership within reach for working households even as the local market softens.
On state assessments, the picture at D.M. Smith is mixed and worth reading grade by grade. The school's strongest subject is science, where fifth-grade proficiency runs clearly above where math and English language arts land. In math, fourth grade stands out as the high point, with a majority of tested students reaching proficiency. Third grade is close behind. Fifth and sixth grades drop off, with proficiency falling to roughly a third of tested students. English language arts is the softer area across the board. Third-grade ELA proficiency is quite low, sixth grade is only somewhat better, and the middle grades of four and five sit between those two markers. None of these results come with participation rates, and the state did not report trend data that would let us compare this year against prior years, so a parent looking to understand whether scores are rising or falling would need to ask the school directly.
The school's fifth-grade science result is a genuine bright spot. More than half of tested fifth graders reached proficiency, which is a stronger showing than the school posts in most other subjects and grades. A parent may want to look into how that instruction is structured and whether the approaches used there carry into other grade levels.
We looked for information on special populations, including students with individualized education programs and English learners, and found that those fields were not reported. The same is true for discipline data, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance. The data set also did not include a neighbor comparison or a locale classification. Title I status was not recorded, though a school where every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch would typically participate. These gaps mean the portrait here is built mostly from assessment results, enrollment, and the surrounding community context.
Because D.M. Smith stops at sixth grade, there is no graduation rate or high school outcome to report. That is simply a function of the grade band served, not a missing result. The Cleveland School District's recent history did not yield specific parent-relevant changes in the search window, so there is little to say about district-level shifts beyond the basic fact that the district operates the public schools within the city.
For a family considering this school, the defining characteristics are its size, its community, and its academic range. It is a small, high-poverty elementary and middle-grades school serving a nearly homogeneous student body in a Delta town with a university presence but a shrinking population and a soft housing market. Math performance is middling with one strong grade, science is a clear strength at fifth grade, and English language arts is the area where a parent would most want to ask about intervention and support. The absence of trend data, special-population figures, and program details means a family would be wise to visit and ask the school directly about how it serves students reading below grade level and what supports exist for children who need extra help.
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