The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Otken Elementary School
Otken Elementary School sits on Montana Avenue in McComb, Mississippi, serving the early elementary years in the McComb School District. The school covers grades one through three, placing it at the foundational stage of children's formal education, when literacy and numeracy are being established.
McComb itself is a small city in Pike County with deep railroad roots. Founded as a maintenance-shop town for a railroad line, it retains a traditional downtown along Main Street with City Hall anchoring the civic core. An Amtrak station connects the city to the broader region via the City of New Orleans line. The McComb Main Street Association supports ongoing downtown activity, and the city hosts annual cultural events including an Earth Day festival organized by Pike School of Art and the Summit Street Unity Festival. Southwest Mississippi Community College sits a short drive north near Summit, serving as a regional educational anchor, while Parklane Academy, a private college-preparatory school, operates in the central part of the city.
The school's enrollment is modest for its grade band. Its student body is predominantly Black, with small representations of White, multiracial, and Hispanic students. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which reflects the economic conditions in the surrounding community. The data does not include IEP or English learner figures, so the size of those student populations is not available. Title I status was also not reported.
On state assessments administered through Mississippi's MAAP, Otken's third graders showed moderate proficiency in English language arts, with roughly half demonstrating grade-level competence. Math proficiency for third grade was lower, with a smaller portion meeting the standard. The school also has fourth-grade assessment results on record, which is unusual given that the stated grade range runs only through third grade. Those fourth-grade scores show lower proficiency in both subjects than the third-grade results. A parent may want to look into how those results are associated with the school, given the grade configuration. Participation rates were not available for any of the reported assessments.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time.
The housing market in the school's zip code is quite affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Home values sit well below the Mississippi state average and far below national figures, and recent values have declined modestly on a year-over-year basis. The price-to-income ratio falls below the national midpoint, suggesting that homeownership is within reach for many local households relative to earnings. Rental data was not available, so the rental market picture is incomplete.
We looked for recent district-level changes that might affect families, such as curriculum shifts, facility investments, or governance changes, but the search did not surface any such developments. The McComb School District's parent-relevant news was thin, so we left it out rather than speculate.
Several categories of information that would help round out a parent's understanding were absent. No data on discipline, course access, staffing ratios, attendance patterns, or school locale classification was provided. Civil rights data was empty. No program offerings were listed. Without these, it is difficult to assess the full range of student supports, enrichment opportunities, or school climate factors. A family considering Otken would benefit from asking the school directly about class sizes, intervention services, and any specialized programming for early learners, since the data does not speak to those areas.
What the available information does convey is a small early-elementary school in an affordable, historically rooted community, serving a student population that is economically disadvantaged across the board, with state test results that leave room for growth in both literacy and mathematics.
See more original research from School Decision →