The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in Math. The lowest is 62% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Central Elementary School
Central Elementary School sits on Dupont Street in Pascagoula, a Gulf Coast city where heavy industry and residential life sit side by side. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fourth grade and belongs to the Pascagoula-Gautier School District. It is a small school for its grade band, and every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the working-class character of the surrounding neighborhoods rather than anything about the school itself.
Pascagoula is a city shaped by shipbuilding and refining. Ingalls Shipbuilding, described publicly as Mississippi's largest employer, anchors one end of town, and Chevron's largest refinery sits at the other, with Bollinger Shipyards, Rolls-Royce Naval Marine, and a web of contractors filling in between. The city has a historic downtown core, once the separate town of Scranton, where events like the Goula Palooza festival bring people together. The built environment is car-dependent, with U.S. Route 90 cutting through as a main arterial. The population peaked decades ago during the height of Cold War defense spending and has edged downward since. Hurricane Katrina left lasting marks on the city, and rebuilding brought infrastructure changes like geotube installations under the beach and requirements for homes to be rebuilt on pilings.
Housing here is modestly priced compared with both the state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below what you would find across Mississippi as a whole, and far below national figures. The price-to-income ratio suggests that buying a home is within reach for many local families, though the data does not include rental figures for the immediate area. The housing market has been roughly flat year over year, neither surging nor sliding.
On state assessments, Central Elementary's results are solid for a school serving an entirely low-income population. Third-grade math proficiency is strong, with a clear majority of tested students scoring at proficient or above. Fourth-grade math dips somewhat, with a smaller majority clearing the bar. English language arts follows a similar pattern: third grade is the stronger cohort, and fourth grade remains close behind. These results suggest that most students are meeting state standards in the tested grades, with third grade performing at a higher level than fourth. No participation rate data was available, so it is worth confirming with the school that testing participation was complete. Because the school serves pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, only third and fourth graders sit for the MAAP exams; the younger grades are not tested at the state level.
We looked for information on special education enrollment and English learner numbers, but those figures were missing from the available data. The same is true for discipline records, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance rates. None of these were reported, so there is no basis to characterize them here. A parent wanting a fuller picture of student support might ask the school directly about these areas.
The student body is majority Black, with white and Hispanic students forming the next largest groups, plus small numbers of Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and multiracial students. The school is not a charter or magnet school. The available data does not specify a locale classification or Title I status, though the universal free-or-reduced lunch rate and the grade band strongly suggest Title I participation.
One district-level change may affect families considering this area. Jackson Elementary School, elsewhere in the Pascagoula-Gautier district, is scheduled to close after the 2025-26 year. That closure will redraw attendance zones and shift where some families send their elementary-aged children. While Central Elementary's own boundaries may or may not change, the ripple effects of redrawing zones across the district are something a family moving in should watch.
For a parent weighing Central Elementary, the school offers a community where most tested students are reaching proficiency in math and reading, in a city where housing costs are low and the local economy is anchored by stable industrial employers. The gaps in the data, particularly around student support services and staffing, mean that some questions are best taken directly to the school rather than answered from public records.
See more original research from School Decision →