The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Science. The lowest is 35% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cook Elementary School
Cook Elementary School sits on North Seventh Street in Columbus, Mississippi, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of Columbus Municipal School District. The school's enrollment is moderate for its grade band, with fairly even distribution across the grade levels. Every student at Cook qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which places the school firmly in the category of high-poverty elementary education. The student body is predominantly Black, with small numbers of Hispanic, white, Asian, and multiracial students.
On state assessments from the most recent school year, Cook's results show a clear pattern. Third-grade math is the school's weakest area, with only about a fifth of tested students reaching proficiency. That figure rises substantially in fourth and fifth grade, where more than two-fifths of students scored proficient. English language arts results hold steadier across the three tested grades, hovering in the mid-thirties for proficiency. Fifth-grade science landed close to two-fifths proficient. The jump between third and fourth grade math suggests that some students find their footing as they move up, though the third-grade number is a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding, or slipping over time.
Information on special populations was not reported. IEP rates and English learner counts were both missing from the available data, so the picture of how the school serves students with disabilities or language needs is incomplete. Data on discipline, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance was also absent. No civil-rights reporting was included. These gaps mean a parent would need to ask the school directly about classroom support, teacher experience, and how behavior and attendance are handled.
Columbus itself is the county seat of Lowndes County and functions as a trade center for the surrounding agricultural region. Publicly reported sources describe a local economy built on a mix of defense and aerospace manufacturing, paper and steel production, healthcare, and military employment. Columbus Air Force Base, one of a small number of basic Air Force flight training installations in the country, is a major employer, as are Baptist Memorial Hospital and Mississippi University for Women. The city is part of the Golden Triangle region, linking Columbus with West Point and Starkville. Columbus has a historic downtown along Main Street with preserved antebellum architecture and three National Register historic districts, though the broader built environment is oriented around highways and remains car-dependent. The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway runs through the city, and the airport offers scheduled flights to Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth. Population has been relatively stable with a slight decline over recent decades.
The housing market around Cook Elementary is modest by national standards. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit below the state benchmark and well below the national figure, which means buying into this attendance zone is relatively affordable compared with most of the country. Rents are also low, and the cost of renting takes up a smaller share of typical household income than the national average. Mortgage rates have been hovering in the mid-six percent range. For families considering relocation, the housing costs around Cook are unlikely to be a barrier, and renting remains cheaper than buying on a monthly basis.
No program offerings were listed for Cook Elementary, and no magnet or charter designation applies. The school operates as a traditional public elementary within its district. Information about the district's recent strategic priorities or parent-relevant changes was searched but not found, so there is little to report on new initiatives or reforms that might affect families currently considering the school.
What the available data describes is a high-poverty elementary school with mixed academic results, real strength in upper-elementary math relative to its third-grade starting point, and steady-if-modest ELA and science performance. The community around it is small-city Mississippi, with a diversified industrial base and a historic core, though growth has been flat. Families looking at Cook would benefit from asking the school directly about third-grade math instruction, available interventions, staffing, and how special needs are supported, since none of that appeared in the data provided.
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