The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 28% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on R H Bearden Elementary School
R H Bearden Elementary sits in Sumner, a very small, rural town on the west side of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The town's identity runs through its civic landmarks rather than its commercial life. The restored Tallahatchie County Courthouse and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center anchor the community, and in 2023 the site became part of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. Cotton was the dominant commodity crop here well into the twentieth century, and the town has served as a market center for the surrounding agricultural district. The population has been declining over recent decades, and publicly reported sources identify no major new housing development. The school sits on Friendship Road West and serves kindergarten through sixth grade as part of the West Tallahatchie School District. Coahoma Community College is the designated community college for the area.
The school is small for its grade band. Its enrollment is nearly entirely African American, with a tiny handful of students from other racial backgrounds. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic conditions of the surrounding community rather than any selective admissions policy. The school is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not available, so those populations could not be characterized.
Academic results from the 2024-25 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program show a mixed picture that varies sharply by grade and subject. In math, third-grade proficiency is quite low, with only a small fraction of tested students reaching proficiency. Fourth-grade math rises to a moderate level, and fifth grade sits in a similar mid-range. Sixth-grade math is the clear standout: a strong majority of tested sixth graders reached proficiency, a level well above what the earlier grades show. This pattern suggests that students who stay in the school through the upper elementary years may be making substantial gains in math, though the data available does not include year-over-year growth or trend comparisons that would confirm this.
English language arts tells a different story. Proficiency across grades three through six stays in a narrow lower-to-moderate band, with third grade at the bottom and grades four through six clustered close together. There is no grade where ELA proficiency reaches the level seen in sixth-grade math. A parent looking at these results might want to ask the school how reading instruction is structured across the grade bands and what interventions are in place for students below proficiency, particularly in the earliest tested grades. Fifth-grade science proficiency falls in a moderate range, consistent with the middle of the school's overall results.
Several categories of information that parents often weigh were not available in the data provided. There is no multi-year trend data, so it is not possible to say whether proficiency is improving or declining over time. No civil-rights data on discipline, course access, or staffing was reported. No attendance or chronic-absenteeism figures were included. The school's Title I status was not specified, though the universal free-or-reduced-price-lunch rate suggests the school almost certainly receives federal support for high-poverty schools. No neighbor comparison or county-level positioning data was provided, so the school cannot be placed against nearby schools or districts in this account. The district brief for West Tallahatchie School District did not surface any parent-relevant changes or strategic initiatives in the available research.
Sumner itself offers a quiet, rural setting. The town has minimal commercial street life and no identified public parks, libraries, or transit systems in available sources. No major employers were identified beyond the courthouse and interpretive center. Families considering this area should understand that the community is small, declining in population, and economically constrained, with the school serving a student body where poverty is universal. The strongest academic signal here is in sixth-grade math. The weakest is in early-grade ELA and third-grade math. A parent weighing this school would benefit from talking directly with school staff about how reading support works in the primary grades and what drives the gains apparent by sixth grade in math.
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