The top reported proficiency rate is 88% in Science. The lowest is 69% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Ocean Springs Upper Elementary Scho
Ocean Springs Upper Elementary School sits on Government Street in the heart of this Gulf Coast arts community, serving grades four through six as part of the Ocean Springs School District. The school draws from a city that publicly describes itself as a vibrant, eclectic arts community with a historic downtown lined by live oaks, galleries, restaurants, and shops. Ocean Springs sits just east of Biloxi across the bay, and its commercial districts have been growing steadily since the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding years. The housing market here runs above the state benchmark but below national levels, with typical home values in a mid-range that many Gulf Coast families can approach. Rents are moderate relative to local incomes. The community blends residential calm with a tourism and cultural economy anchored by the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, the annual Peter Anderson Festival, and a walkable Main Street district, while the built environment outside downtown trends suburban and auto-oriented.
The school itself is sizable for its three-grade band, with enrollment spread fairly evenly across grades four, five, and six. The student body is majority white, with a Black population forming the next largest group, and smaller Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial contingents. A moderate share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The school sits below the midpoint of Jackson County districts on economic need, which is to say the community is relatively comfortable but not uniformly affluent. We looked for data on special education enrollment and English learners and found none reported, so a parent whose child falls into either category may want to ask the school directly about services and staffing.
Academic results on Mississippi's MAAP assessment are a clear strength of this school. Math proficiency is strong across all three grades, with the majority of students scoring proficient or above in fourth grade and an even larger majority in fifth and sixth. English language arts follows a similar pattern in fourth and fifth grade, where most students reach proficiency. Science proficiency in fifth grade stands out as particularly high, with a very large majority of tested students meeting the bar. These are well above typical state proficiency levels and suggest a school where core instruction in math, reading, and science is landing effectively for most students.
One area a parent may want to look into further is sixth-grade ELA. While fourth and fifth grade ELA results are strong, sixth grade proficiency drops off by a meaningful margin compared with the other grades and subjects at this school. This does not erase the overall picture of solid performance, but it is a pattern worth asking about. Whether it reflects a harder transition year, a curricular shift, or something else is not explained by the available data.
Because this school serves only grades four through six, there is no graduation rate to report and no high school course access data. That gap reflects the grade band, not a missing result. The same applies to AP, dual-credit, and career-pathway measures, which do not exist at this level. Participation rates for the state assessments were not available in the data provided, though the tested counts themselves were reported and appear robust across grades and subjects.
We searched for recent parent-relevant changes in the Ocean Springs School District and found nothing meeting a lasting-impact threshold, so there is nothing new to flag on the district front. No neighbor comparison data was available to position this school against nearby schools in the county. Program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, and attendance figures were also absent from the available data, so those dimensions are left out rather than guessed.
What the evidence does say is consistent. Ocean Springs Upper Elementary is a well-performing school in a community with a distinct cultural identity, a stable housing market, and a walkable downtown core near the waterfront. Families looking for solid academics in the upper elementary years, particularly in math and science, will find strong evidence here. Those with children approaching sixth grade may benefit from asking specifically how literacy instruction and support operate during that transition year.
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