The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in Science. The lowest is 33% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Poplar Springs Elementary School
Poplar Springs Elementary School sits on the northern side of Meridian, a small city in eastern Mississippi that has spent decades reinventing itself after the railroad industry that once made it the state's largest city faded away. Today the local economy rests on healthcare, military installations, and manufacturing, with Ochsner Rush Health, Naval Air Station Meridian, and Key Field anchoring employment. Housing here is modestly priced relative to both state and national benchmarks, and values have crept upward only slightly. For families weighing a move into the attendance zone, the cost of living is low and the cultural infrastructure in downtown Meridian, including the Riley Center and the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, gives the city more civic life than its size might suggest.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Meridian Public Schools. Its enrollment is modest for an elementary campus, with students distributed evenly across the grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black, with a small white population and traces of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which reflects the economic context of the surrounding neighborhoods rather than anything about the school itself.
On the most recent Mississippi Academic Assessment Program results, the picture is mixed and shifts noticeably by grade and subject. English language arts is the school's relative strength. In the upper elementary grades, a substantial share of tested students reached proficiency, and fifth-grade science landed in a comparable range. Fourth grade stands out as the school's strongest cohort across both core subjects. Third-grade ELA trails the rest, with a smaller portion of students meeting the proficiency bar, a result that suggests some early-grade readers may need more support than the school is currently providing.
Mathematics tells a more concerning story. Third and fourth grades land in a middling band, with a meaningful but incomplete share of students demonstrating proficiency. Fifth-grade math drops sharply, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. A decline of that size between consecutive grades is the kind of result a parent may want to look into further with the school, whether it reflects a cohort effect, a curricular gap, or something about the transition into the upper elementary math sequence.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is unclear whether these results represent a single year's pattern or a longer-standing challenge. Participation rates were also missing from the state report. Information on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, which limits the picture of how the school serves its special populations. We looked for program offerings, discipline data, staffing ratios, and attendance figures, but none were available in the provided data.
The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes, such as leadership transitions, school reconfigurations, or facility investments, that would shape a family's decision right now. The search did not find evidence of major new housing developments in Meridian either, so the residential picture around the school is likely one of existing neighborhoods rather than rapid growth or turnover.
What the available evidence suggests is an elementary school serving a high-poverty community in a city with affordable housing and a stable if modest economic base. Its English and science results in the upper elementary grades are genuinely encouraging, and fourth grade across the board is a bright spot. The fifth-grade math result is the clearest soft spot, and the absence of trend data makes it hard to say whether that is an anomaly or a pattern. A family considering Poplar Springs would do well to ask the school directly about its math instruction in the upper grades, how it supports early-grade reading, and what interventions are in place for students who fall behind.
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