The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in Math. The lowest is 59% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Lake Elementary School
Lake Elementary School sits on Willow Street in Pascagoula, serving kindergarten through fourth grade as part of the Pascagoula-Gautier School District. It is a small school, with enrollment spread across five grade levels in a way that makes each classroom a tight cohort. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Black enrollment and a smaller Hispanic presence. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school firmly in the category of community schools serving working families rather than a mixed-income enrollment.
Pascagoula itself is a Gulf Coast industrial city where heavy shipbuilding and refining define the local economy. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Chevron's refinery, Bollinger Shipyards, and Rolls Royce Naval Marine are among the employers that anchor the area, and the city has a historic downtown core once known as Scranton. The built environment is car-dependent, with U.S. Route 90 running through town. Publicly reported sources describe Pascagoula as a family-friendly community, and civic anchors like Shepard State Park and the Old Spanish Fort give residents accessible recreation. The city's population peaked decades ago and has seen modest decline since, with post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding reshaping parts of the coastline and building stock.
State assessment results from the most recent school year show Lake Elementary performing in a solid mid-range on Mississippi's MAAP tests. In both third and fourth grade math, a clear majority of tested students reached proficiency, with fourth grade edging slightly ahead of third. English language arts results followed a similar pattern, with a majority proficient in both grades, though fourth grade ELA came in just under the math figures. These are reasonable results for an elementary school where every student comes from an economically disadvantaged background, and the consistency between grades and subjects suggests steady instruction rather than a spike in one area. That said, the tested groups are small, which means results can shift noticeably year to year with the movement of just a few students, so a parent may want to look into multi-year patterns with the school directly.
We looked for trend data to see whether results have been improving or declining over time, but none was available, so we left that out rather than guess. IEP and English learner counts were also missing from the data provided. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and no grade beyond fourth is tested here. Information on staffing ratios, attendance, discipline, course access, and Title I status was not available in the payload. Program offerings were not provided either. These gaps mean the picture is fuller on academic results and community context than on internal school operations.
The housing market around Lake Elementary is affordable by both state and national standards. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below the Mississippi state benchmark and far below national levels, and the price-to-income ratio is low. Rent data was not available for this area. Mortgage rates are in the range seen across the country currently. For families tied to the industrial economy of Pascagoula, housing costs near the school are relatively manageable compared with most of the country.
One district-level change worth noting: Jackson Elementary in Gautier is scheduled to close after the upcoming school year, which will redraw attendance zones and shift where some Gautier families send their elementary-aged children. This does not directly affect Lake Elementary's zone, but it signals that the Pascagoula-Gautier district is in a period of reorganization, and families moving into the broader area should confirm current attendance boundaries.
Lake Elementary reads as a small, community-rooted school where most children know each other across grade levels, and where state test results hold their own despite universal economic disadvantage. The missing data on staffing, programs, and special populations limits how fully a parent can assess the school from the outside, so direct conversation with the school would fill in the operational picture that these sources do not.
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