The top reported proficiency rate is 19% in Math. The lowest is 16% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on B F Liddell Middle School
B. F. Liddell Middle School sits in Macon, the county seat of Noxubee County, and serves grades six through eight as part of the Noxubee County School District. The town is a small, rural community in east-central Mississippi at the crossroads of US Highway 45 and Mississippi Highway 14. Publicly reported sources describe it as a place with affordable homes and a low cost of living, but also one facing long-term population decline. The town has been shrinking for decades, and no major new housing or commercial development projects surfaced in available research. For a family considering this school, the setting is quiet, car-dependent, and anchored by county government and the school system itself. Columbus, West Point, and Starkville are each within a moderate driving distance for work, shopping, or services not available locally.
The school's enrollment is modest for a middle school, with roughly equal numbers across the three grade levels. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school in a category where economic disadvantage touches the entire student body. The racial composition is overwhelmingly Black, with a small Hispanic presence and a handful of students identifying as two or more races. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so those figures are a gap a parent would need to ask the school about directly.
On state assessments, B. F. Liddell's results are low across every subject and grade level. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above drops as students move up through the grades, with sixth grade showing the highest rate and eighth grade the lowest. The decline from sixth to eighth grade is steep enough that a parent may want to look into what supports and interventions the school has in place for older students who are struggling. In English language arts, proficiency is flat across all three grades, sitting well below what most Mississippi middle schools achieve. Eighth-grade science results track closely with the ELA numbers. These are not borderline results; they reflect a school where most students are not yet meeting state grade-level expectations in core subjects. A family relying on the public record here should treat the academic picture as an area of real concern and ask school leadership what improvement plans are underway.
Particular context matters. Noxubee County is one of the poorer corners of Mississippi, and Macon has been publicly identified in past reporting as among the poorest towns in the country for its size. The housing market reflects this. Home values in the school's zip code are far below both the state and national benchmarks, and values have been falling rather than holding steady. This means housing is inexpensive relative to most places, but it also signals limited local tax revenue to support schools, which can affect everything from teacher retention to classroom resources. The district brief turned up no recent referendums, curriculum overhauls, or other lasting parent-relevant changes, so there is little in the public record to suggest a specific reform effort is in motion.
No program offerings, course access details, staffing figures, attendance data, or discipline records were provided, which limits the picture considerably. A parent evaluating this school should ask directly about tutoring, after-school support, teacher experience, and any partnerships the district maintains with nearby institutions. The locale brief notes that East Mississippi Community College offers some courses at the high school in Macon, which suggests a pathway exists once students reach ninth grade, but nothing in the data speaks to what B. F. Liddell itself offers to prepare students for that transition.
In short, this is a small, rural, high-poverty middle school in a declining town, serving a nearly all-Black student body, with state test results that point to substantial academic challenges. The cost of living is low and the community is tight-knit in the way small county seats tend to be. The academic data, though, is the part a parent should press on hardest when visiting or calling the school.
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