Pope Elementary School, Pope MS - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Pope Elementary School

Pope Elementary School sits in the village of Pope, a very small, overwhelmingly residential community in Panola County, roughly seventy miles south of Memphis and a short drive from Batesville, the county seat. The school serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and operates as part of the South Panola School District. Students who age out of Pope Elementary continue to South Panola High School in Batesville. The village itself has limited commercial activity, with only a handful of small businesses and no traditional walkable downtown. The municipal building and the school function as the primary civic anchors. Nearby Sardis Lake offers regional recreation, but no public library branch, transit system, or named parks were identified within the village itself.

The community is in a period of slow population decline rather than growth, with no major housing developments or commercial projects on the horizon. Housing here is quite affordable compared with national figures, with typical home values sitting well below the national benchmark and modestly below the Mississippi state benchmark. For a family buying at current mortgage rates, the monthly cost would be manageable on a moderate income. The price-to-income ratio is low, which makes homeownership realistic for many local families. Rental data was not available, so a family looking to rent would need to investigate options in nearby Batesville or surrounding areas.

Academically, the most recent Mississippi Academic Assessment Program results show a clear and consistent pattern. In the early grades, proficiency is strong. Third graders performed well in both math and English language arts, and fifth grade science results were among the school's highest scores. Fifth grade English language arts was also a bright spot. These early-grade results suggest the school is building a solid foundation in reading and in science instruction at the elementary level.

The picture shifts as students move into the upper grades. Math proficiency dips in fourth and fifth grade, recovers somewhat in sixth, then falls again in seventh and eighth. Eighth grade math is among the weaker results. English language arts follows a similar trajectory, with seventh and eighth grade proficiency dropping to the lowest levels in the school. Science holds up better, with eighth grade science results staying above the school's middle-grade math and ELA scores. The overall pattern points to a school where younger students are performing well but where the upper grades lose ground, particularly in math and reading. A parent with a child entering the middle grades may want to look into this further with the school, asking how instruction and support are structured for seventh and eighth graders.

The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller Black student population and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here.

Several categories of information were missing from the available data. No staffing figures, course access details, discipline records, attendance rates, or program offerings were provided. No civil rights data was available. The school does not have a graduation rate because it does not serve high school grades through completion, and that gap reflects the grade band rather than a missing result. No neighbor comparison or district-level strategic changes were found, and the district brief returned little of lasting impact. Participation rates for the state assessments were also not reported. A family evaluating Pope Elementary would benefit from asking the school directly about teacher experience, available interventions for struggling students, and what enrichment or extracurricular options exist for the upper grades.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 52% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 54% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 50% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 41% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 51% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 366%

School 66% · District 43% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 455%

School 55% · District 53% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 53% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 654%

School 54% · District 42% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 33% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 837%

School 37% · District 38% · ▼ 1 pts below district

even with state median

Science

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 70% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 3 pts above state median

This schoolSOUTH PANOLA SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.