The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Science. The lowest is 30% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Collins Elementary
Collins Elementary sits in the small county-seat town of Collins, Mississippi, at the crossroads of U.S. Routes 49 and 84 in south-central Covington County. The town grew as a lumber boomtown, contracted when the timber ran out, and rebuilt itself around highway commerce and civic functions. Today it retains a compact downtown anchored by the county courthouse, with residential neighborhoods spreading outward and commercial strips lining the highways. There is no mass transit; residents rely on cars. The nearest community college, Jones College, is in Ellisville. Collins Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of the Covington County School District, which also covers Mount Olive and Seminary. In 2021, a federal court released the district from decades of desegregation oversight and granted it unitary status, giving the district full control over attendance zones, staffing, and school assignment.
The school serves a student body in which every child qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment is predominantly Black, with smaller White, multiracial, and Hispanic populations. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available, so those portions of the picture remain blank. The school does not operate as a charter or magnet.
On the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program, results from the most recent school year paint a mixed picture across subjects. In English language arts, proficiency strengthens as students move up through the grades. Third grade starts modestly, and by sixth grade a larger share of students reach proficient or above. This upward arc across grade levels is a genuine bright spot, suggesting that the longer students stay in the building, the more ground they gain in reading and writing.
Mathematics tells a different story. Proficiency across grades three through six is generally below the level seen in ELA, with fifth grade marking the lowest point before a partial recovery in sixth. A parent weighing this school may want to ask how math instruction is structured across the intermediate grades and what interventions are in place, particularly around fifth grade.
Science is the standout. Fifth-grade science proficiency is strong, well above what the same students post in math and ELA, and it is the school's clearest academic strength. Whatever the school is doing in science instruction appears to be landing.
The town's housing market is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the state average and far below the national figure, and the price-to-income ratio is modest. Estimated monthly mortgage costs are low, and rent data was not available for this area. Collins is experiencing population decline rather than growth, with no major new housing or commercial developments publicly reported. The local economy leans on Covington County Hospital, the school district itself, and county and city government, with highway retail and seasonal tourism businesses supplementing those anchors.
Civic life includes Bettie D. Robertson Park with its athletic fields and walking track, Westside Park with basketball courts, and the annual Okatoma Festival on the first Saturday of May, which brings vendors and carnival rides downtown. Grand Paradise Water Park and an eighteen-hole golf club add recreational options. The built environment is low-density and small-town, with walkability limited to the downtown core and nearby residential streets.
What a parent finds at Collins Elementary is a small-town school with universal economic need, a student body that grows stronger in reading and language as it progresses, a clear strength in science, and a softer spot in mathematics. The community around it is affordable, car-dependent, and quiet, anchored by healthcare and public-sector employment. For families already rooted in Collins or drawn to its low cost of living and rural texture, the school offers a familiar pathway through the early and intermediate elementary years, with real questions worth asking about math outcomes as children approach the upper grades.
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