The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in Science. The lowest is 17% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on William Winans Middle School
William Winans Middle School sits in Centreville, a small rural town in southwest Mississippi that straddles Wilkinson and Amite counties. The school serves middle grades as part of the Wilkinson County School District. Centreville developed in the late nineteenth century along railroad tracks that have since been removed and replaced with a memorial park. The town has a traditional grid street pattern centered on Main Street, with a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places featuring Colonial Revival, Bungalow, and Queen Anne architecture. Publicly reported sources describe the area as a suburban rural mix where most residents own their homes, though the town is experiencing population decline rather than growth. Employment has contracted, and very few residents have moved into the area recently. Median household income sits well below the national average, with a high poverty rate. Many residents commute to the McComb micropolitan area or other nearby places for work, with average commute times running nearly double the national figure. No public transit system serves the town.
The school itself is small, with a modest enrollment across its three grade levels. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is almost entirely Black, with a very small number of Hispanic students and students of two or more races. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not available. The school is not a charter or magnet school. Information on Title I status, staffing levels, course offerings, attendance patterns, and discipline was not provided in the available data, so we noted these gaps rather than filling them with assumptions.
On Mississippi's state assessment, the MAAP, proficiency rates at William Winans are low across every subject and grade level tested. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above sits well below state midpoints in all three grades, with the highest rate appearing in seventh grade and the lowest in sixth and eighth. English language arts results follow a similar pattern, with sixth grade showing the strongest performance and seventh grade the weakest. Eighth-grade science proficiency also runs low. These results are reported for all students combined, and no breakdown by subgroup was available. No multi-year trend data was provided, so it is not possible to say whether performance is improving, declining, or holding steady. Participation rates for the assessments were not reported. A parent considering this school may want to ask about the instructional supports in place for students performing below grade level and how the school plans to address proficiency gaps.
Because William Winans serves only middle grades, there is no graduation rate or college readiness data to report. Those measures apply to high schools and do not apply here. The available data does not include information about advanced course offerings, career pathways, extracurricular programs, or dual-credit opportunities, so we cannot speak to what is or is not available beyond core instruction. No neighbor comparison data was provided, so we could not position this school against others in its county set.
Housing in the Centreville area is very affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the Mississippi state median and far below the national median, and recent trends show values declining modestly. Rent data was not available for this area. The estimated monthly cost of homeownership, assuming a standard down payment and current mortgage rates, remains low by national standards. For families already in the area, housing costs are unlikely to be a barrier. For those considering a move, the trade-off is a community facing economic contraction and limited local employment.
The Wilkinson County School District brief yielded little in the way of recent parent-relevant changes, so we left that section out rather than guess. No strategic priorities or new initiatives were publicly reported in the material we reviewed.
What the picture shows is a small, rural middle school in a town working through economic and demographic decline, serving a student body that is economically disadvantaged and racially homogeneous, with state assessment results indicating most students are not yet meeting grade-level expectations. Families looking at this school would benefit from direct conversations with school leadership about academic intervention plans, available student support services, and what the classroom experience looks like day to day.
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