The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Science. The lowest is 32% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Twenty Eighth St Elem
Twenty-Eighth Street Elementary sits in Gulfport, Mississippi, part of the Gulfport School District. It serves children from prekindergarten through fifth grade on Forty-Sixth Avenue, in a city that stretches along the Gulf of Mexico. Gulfport is the second-most populous city in the state, with an economy anchored by military operations, tourism, healthcare, and maritime commerce. The Port of Gulfport ranks among the busiest on the Gulf, and the nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center is a major employer. Publicly reported sources note that Memorial Hospital, Island View Casino, and the school district itself are among the city's largest employers. The city rebuilt substantially after Hurricane Katrina and continues to develop its tourism infrastructure, with the Mississippi Aquarium opening on the storm's anniversary and Amtrak service recently returning to town.
The school's enrollment is moderate for an elementary campus serving its grade range. Nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this firmly among schools serving high-poverty communities. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller Hispanic, multiracial, and white populations. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those population sizes are unknown here.
On state assessments, the most recent Mississippi Academic Assessment Program results show a split pattern between subjects. In English language arts, proficiency rises meaningfully from third grade to fifth grade, with fourth and fifth graders reaching proficiency at levels approaching or exceeding half of tested students. Fifth-grade ELA is the strongest result in the school's profile. In math, the story runs the other direction. Third-grade math proficiency is the highest among the three tested grades, and it drops in fourth and fifth grades to levels where fewer than a third of tested students reach proficiency. Fifth-grade science sits at about the midpoint, with roughly half of tested students demonstrating proficiency.
A parent reading these results might see a school where literacy instruction appears to gain traction as children move through the upper elementary grades, while math outcomes remain a softer area across the board. The decline in math proficiency from third to fourth grade is worth asking about. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly what supports or curricular shifts occur at that transition point.
Because Twenty-Eighth Street serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate, no advanced coursework data, and no dual-credit programming to report. Those measures belong to secondary schools. The school's grade band also means state testing covers only grades three through five, which is standard for Mississippi elementary schools.
The housing market around the school's zip code is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Home values sit well below the statewide typical and roughly a third of the national figure. Rents are modest. The price-to-income ratio is low, and estimated monthly mortgage costs run below typical rent, which means buying may be within reach for some families in this area compared with renting. Home values have dipped slightly year over year, while rents have risen.
Gulfport's built environment is auto-oriented, with Interstate 10 running east to west and U.S. 49 terminating from the north. Street life concentrates downtown and along the beachfront, particularly during events like Cruisin' the Coast and the World's Largest Fishing Rodeo. The school itself sits in a residential part of the city, away from the tourism corridor. Publicly reported sources describe Gulfport as a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, and tourism-oriented development, with historic neighborhoods alongside a mercantile center.
Several pieces of information that would help round out a parent's understanding were not available in the data provided. There is no staffing information, no discipline or attendance data, no course-access detail, and no civil-rights reporting. The school's Title I status and magnet status are listed as unknown rather than confirmed. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these proficiency results represent improvement, decline, or stability. The district brief searched for recent parent-relevant changes in the Gulfport School District and found none reported. We looked for the district's strategic priorities but found little, so we left it out rather than guess.
What the available picture does show is an elementary school serving a high-poverty community in an affordable coastal city, with literacy outcomes that strengthen in the upper grades and math outcomes that a parent may want to examine more closely.
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