The top reported proficiency rate is 34% in Science. The lowest is 28% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Oakhurst Intermediate Academy
Oakhurst Intermediate Academy sits in Clarksdale, the county seat of Coahoma County and a town rooted deep in the Mississippi Delta. The school serves fifth and sixth graders, acting as a bridge between elementary and middle school for families in the Clarksdale Municipal School District. It is a small school for its grade band, with an enrollment that reflects a tight-knit community setting.
The student body is almost entirely Black, with a tiny number of students from other racial backgrounds. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school firmly in the category of serving a high-poverty community. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.
On the most recent Mississippi Academic Assessment Program results, Oakhurst's proficiency rates run below what most families would hope to see. In fifth-grade math, roughly a quarter of tested students reached proficiency. Sixth-grade math fared somewhat better, with about a third clearing that bar. English language arts followed a similar pattern, with fifth grade landing near a quarter proficient and sixth grade just under a third. Science results for fifth grade sat in the same middle range, with about a third of students proficient. These are soft spots, plain and simple. A parent considering this school may want to look into what targeted supports and interventions the school is using to move more students toward proficiency, and how those efforts are progressing.
Because Oakhurst serves only fifth and sixth grades, there is no graduation rate to report, no AP or dual-credit data, and no college- or career-readiness information. Those measures simply do not apply to this grade band. The school does not have a charter or magnet designation. Title I status was not provided in the available data.
Clarksdale itself is a place of contradictions worth understanding. Long known as an agricultural trading and processing center for cotton, soybeans, rice, and other Delta crops, the city has seen steady population decline over two decades. At the same time, blues music heritage has become a genuine economic engine. The Delta Blues Museum, housed in a renovated railroad freight depot downtown, draws visitors from across the country. Live music is now available seven nights a week, and festivals like the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival and the Juke Joint Festival bring crowds and revenue. CNN publicly named Clarksdale one of America's best towns to visit, citing transplants and tourism as sources of a modest revival.
That revival has not yet translated into new housing development, based on available information. The housing market is very affordable by any standard. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit far below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent values have declined modestly year over year. For a family looking to buy, the cost of entry is low. Whether that represents opportunity or a reflection of limited local economic demand is a question the housing data alone cannot answer.
Clarksdale is car-dependent, with US Routes running through the city and the nearest major airport about an hour's drive away in Memphis. There is no public transit system. The broader community is low-density, though the historic downtown along Delta Avenue has cultural anchors like the Carnegie Public Library, the Walk of Fame, and clustered music venues. Coahoma Community College, a historically Black college, sits on a separate campus north of the city and serves as a nearby post-secondary option.
Oakhurst Intermediate Academy fits within a district that spreads its schools across the community rather than concentrating them on a single campus. For a parent weighing this school, the academic results are the central question. The community context is rich with cultural identity and history, but the classroom-level data tells a story of a school still working to lift its students to proficiency. A visit and a conversation with school leadership about instructional strategy would be a reasonable next step.
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