The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in Science. The lowest is 43% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hopewell Elementary School
Hopewell Elementary School sits on Hopewell Road in Collins, Mississippi, serving kindergarten through sixth grade as part of the Covington County School District. It is a small school by enrollment, with roughly two dozen students per grade level, and the student body is almost entirely Black. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic conditions in the surrounding community rather than any selection criterion.
Collins itself is a small county-seat town at the junction of U.S. Routes 49 and 84 in south-central Mississippi. Publicly reported accounts describe a community shaped by its lumber-boom origins, subsequent decline when timber was exhausted, and partial recovery after the highways were built. The town today has a courthouse square, residential neighborhoods, and highway commercial strips. Covington County Hospital, the school district, and local government are the main employers. There is no mass transit; residents rely on cars. Parks, a water park, a golf club, and the annual Okatoma Festival provide recreation and civic gatherings. Population estimates indicate the town is shrinking rather than growing, with a modest median household income and a poverty rate that is a factor in daily life. Housing values run well below state and national benchmarks, and the price-to-income ratio suggests housing is relatively affordable for those with stable income, though the absence of rent data limits the picture for families who lease rather than own.
On state assessments through the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program, Hopewell's results show a mixed profile across grades and subjects. Math proficiency is middling in the lower elementary grades and rises noticeably by sixth grade, where a clear majority of tested students reach proficiency. English language arts follows a similar arc, with lower proficiency in third and fourth grades, climbing to about half of students proficient by fifth and sixth grades. Science stands out as the school's strongest area, with fifth-grade science proficiency well above what the other subjects show. Participation rates were not reported in the data we received. The grade-by-grade tested groups are small, which means a few students moving in or out can shift results meaningfully from year to year. We looked for multi-year trend data and found none available, so there is no way to tell from this data whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time.
Several categories of information that parents often ask about were absent from the data. The school serves only elementary and early middle grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. We found no data on special education enrollment, English learner services, disciplinary practices, course access beyond the standard curriculum, staffing ratios, or attendance patterns. Title I status was not reported, though the universal free-or-reduced-price-lunch rate suggests the school likely operates under that framework. No program offerings such as gifted education, arts enrichment, or extracurricular activities were listed in the data provided.
The Covington County School District, which oversees Hopewell, serves the communities of Collins, Mount Olive, and Seminary. A publicly reported district-level change occurred when a federal court granted the district unitary status, releasing it from desegregation oversight. This gives the district full authority over attendance zones, staffing, and school assignment policies. How that autonomy shapes resource distribution across the three towns is something a parent may want to ask district leadership about directly.
Hopewell Elementary presents a particular kind of school: small, serving a high-poverty community, with academic results that are uneven in the early grades and trend upward as students progress, especially in math and science. The sixth-grade math and fifth-grade science results are the clearest bright spots in the available data. The weaker ELA and math proficiency in third and fourth grades is something a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly to understand what literacy supports and early intervention structures are in place.
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