The top reported proficiency rate is 66% in Math. The lowest is 46% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Baxterville School
Baxterville School sits along Highway 11 in Lumberton, Mississippi, a small city straddling Lamar and Pearl River counties in the Hattiesburg metropolitan area. Lumberton takes its name from the lumber industry that once defined the local economy, and the town still carries the texture of a quiet, spread-out rural Mississippi community. Publicly reported sources describe a city with a declining population over recent decades, a high housing vacancy rate, and limited commercial activity, though projections suggest the population may stabilize in the coming years. The Lumberton Public School District consolidated into the Lamar County School District, and Baxterville now operates as one of the district's schools serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school is small for its grade band, with an enrollment that keeps classroom cohorts tight. This is the kind of setting where teachers and families tend to know one another across grade levels, and where a child moving from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade spends nearly their entire elementary and middle-school career in one building. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the broader economic conditions in Lumberton, where the socioeconomic status index is rated low and median home values sit well below both state and national levels.
On state assessments, the most recent MAAP results paint a mixed but generally sturdy picture in the early grades. Third-grade math proficiency is very high, and third- and fourth-grade English language arts results are strong as well, with a clear majority of tested students reaching proficiency. Fourth-grade math is solid, and fifth-grade science shows a majority proficient. These early-grade results are a genuine strength, suggesting that the foundational instruction in the lower school is working well for most students.
The picture softens as students move into the upper grades. Fifth-grade math proficiency dips to about half of tested students, and sixth-grade math and ELA settle at moderate levels. By eighth grade, math proficiency is moderate but ELA drops considerably, and science proficiency in eighth grade is low. The tested counts in these upper grades are very small, which means a few students moving in or out of proficiency can shift the picture sharply from year to year. Seventh-grade results were suppressed, so no proficiency data is available for that grade. A parent considering Baxterville for a middle-school-aged child may want to look into how the school supports students in the transition years and what interventions are in place as content becomes more demanding.
Because Baxterville does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report and no AP or career-pathway data to assess. The school's academic story is entirely about the pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade span. We looked for information on special education enrollment, English learner services, discipline data, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance patterns, but none of these were available in the provided data, so they are left out rather than guessed. Title I status and locale classification were also not reported.
The housing market around Baxterville is affordable by most standards. Median home values in the school's zip code are well below the state benchmark and far below the national figure, and the price-to-income ratio indicates that ownership is within reach for many local families relative to earnings. Rental data was not available. For a family already in or drawn to this part of Lamar County, the cost of living is modest, and the school offers a close-knit, small-community environment with strong early-grade academic outcomes and a clear area of need in the upper elementary and middle grades.
See more original research from School Decision →