The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Math. The lowest is 26% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Eiland Middle School
Eiland Middle School sits in Louisville, the county seat of Winston County, Mississippi, and serves grades six through eight as part of the Louisville Municipal School District. The town is a small rural community built around a crossroads where state highways converge on Main Street. Publicly reported sources describe an economy rooted in forestry, wood-related industries, agriculture, railroad, logistics, steel, and manufacturing, with a historic downtown anchored by the Strand Theatre and the American Heritage Big Red Fire Museum. Louisville's population has been declining over the past two decades, and the community has been recovering from a devastating EF4 tornado that struck in late April, causing fatalities and widespread damage. Housing here is very affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks, with typical home values sitting well below the Mississippi statewide figure and far below the national one, which makes the area accessible to families on modest incomes.
The school's enrollment is modest for a middle school, with each grade carrying roughly the same number of students. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which means the school serves an entirely economically disadvantaged population. The student body is predominantly Black, with a small White enrollment and a handful of students identifying as Hispanic or two or more races. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those portions of the picture remain unstated.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent school year, Eiland's math results were mixed but showed some relative strength in the earlier middle grades. Roughly half of seventh graders reached proficiency or above in math, and sixth grade was close behind. Eighth grade math proficiency dropped noticeably, which may reflect the well-documented difficulty many students face as math content becomes more abstract in the final year of middle school. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports the transition from concrete to advanced math reasoning in that final grade.
English language arts results were lower across the board. Proficiency rates in all three grades fell below the math figures, with seventh grade the weakest. Science, tested only in eighth grade, landed in a middle range, above the ELA rates but below the school's best math showing. These are not strong numbers, and they tell a consistent story: students here are performing better in math than in reading and writing. The school does not publish participation rates for these assessments, so it is unclear whether every eligible student was tested, though the tested counts suggest broad participation.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is impossible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability. Without prior-year comparisons, a parent looking for a direction of travel will need to ask the school directly.
Louisville Municipal School District appears in publicly reported sources as a conventional public district with no charter schools. The district brief turned up little on recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or tax measures. The search found basic district profile and fiscal information but no evidence of referendums or program overhauls, so there is nothing concrete to report on recent district-level initiatives.
Beyond test scores, several categories that would help a parent evaluate this school were absent from the available data. There was no information on course access, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, discipline, or programs such as arts, athletics, or extracurricular offerings. Title I status was not reported. Civil rights data was not provided. A family considering Eiland would want to seek out these details through a school visit or a conversation with administrators.
What the available evidence does establish is a small, community-rooted middle school in an affordable rural town, serving an entirely low-income student population that is predominantly Black. Math is the relative bright spot, with proficiency in the upper elementary-to-middle grades landing near the midpoint. Reading and writing are the clear area of concern, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency in any grade. For a family already in Louisville or considering a move there, Eiland is the local public option, and the housing market makes living nearby financially attainable. The academic picture suggests that supplemental reading support at home and in the community would be especially valuable for students attending this school.
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