The top reported proficiency rate is 66% in Science. The lowest is 41% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Coffeeville Elementary School
Coffeeville Elementary School sits in a small rural Mississippi town that serves as one of two county seats for Yalobusha County, the other being Water Valley. The town has a traditional downtown along Front Street anchored by the Yalobusha County Courthouse, and life here runs on car-dependent patterns despite the compact layout. Publicly reported sources describe a community that has experienced steady population decline over the past two decades, with no major housing developments or growth initiatives identified. The housing market reflects this contraction: home values sit well below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent trends show a modest year-over-year decline. For a family considering the area, housing is relatively affordable compared with state and national levels, though the local economy offers limited named employers beyond county government and the school district itself.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is part of the Coffeeville School District. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. Enrollment is small for a school covering this many grade levels, and the student body is predominantly African American with a smaller White population and a few students identifying as two or more races. Every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which marks this as a school serving a uniformly low-income community. Data on special education enrollment and English learner populations was not available, so those portions of the picture remain unstated.
Academic results from the most recent Mississippi MAAP assessments show a mixed pattern across grade levels. In English language arts, the middle elementary grades are the strongest. Third, fourth, and especially fifth grade show proficiency rates that range from roughly half to nearly two-thirds of tested students reaching proficient or above. Fifth grade ELA is a bright spot. The picture shifts in the upper grades, where sixth grade proficiency drops sharply, seventh grade recovers to near half, and eighth grade falls back down. Math follows a similar uneven trajectory. Third grade math is solid, with about half of students proficient, but fourth and fifth grade math proficiency drops to roughly a quarter of tested students. Sixth and seventh grade math then rise to well over half of students proficient, before eighth grade falls back to about a quarter. Science results are a genuine strength. Fifth grade science shows a clear majority of students proficient, and eighth grade science stands out as the school's best result, with a strong majority of tested students reaching proficiency.
The wide swings from grade to grade are worth paying attention to. In a school this small, each grade has a limited number of tested students, so results can shift with the composition of a single class. A parent looking at these numbers may want to ask the school what supports are in place for the grades and subjects where proficiency is lowest, particularly fourth and fifth grade math and the middle school ELA band. The strong science results and the solid upper-elementary ELA performance suggest the school can produce real achievement when instruction clicks.
Because this school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap reflects the grade band rather than anything about the school's performance. Similarly, the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grades are not part of the state testing system. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. Data on discipline, course access, staffing, and attendance was not provided, and no information on specialized programs was available. The parent district brief did not surface any recent changes such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or policy moves that would help a family understand where the district is headed.
What a family gets here is a small, community-rooted school in an affordable rural town with universally low-income enrollment and uneven but sometimes strong academic results. The science program and upper-elementary reading instruction are working. The math declines in the middle elementary grades and the ELA dips in the upper grades are areas a parent would want to understand better before enrolling. The town itself is quiet, contracting, and anchored by county government rather than private industry, which shapes both the housing market and the employment picture for families settling in the area.
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