The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Linwood Elementary School
Linwood Elementary School sits on Vaughan Road in the unincorporated community of Vaughan, in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It is a pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade school in the Yazoo County School District, serving a small enrollment of children from the surrounding rural area. The school's student body is predominantly African American, and every child qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which tells you something direct about the economic conditions families here are navigating. The community itself is quiet, low-density, and historically rooted in an old stagecoach line that once made it the main trading center of Yazoo County. That era has long passed. Vaughan has no traditional downtown, no public library or transit system, and no identified major employers. The school is one of the few civic institutions the community has.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent school year, Linwood's results swing sharply by grade level. Fourth grade stands out as a strong point, with a large share of students reaching proficiency in math and half reaching it in English language arts. That fourth-grade math performance is genuinely impressive for a school of this size and setting. The picture looks different in third and fifth grade, where proficiency rates in both math and reading fall well below what you would hope to see. Science results for fifth grade land in a similar lower range. These are small tested groups, so a few children moving in or out can shift the numbers, but the pattern of strong fourth-grade results alongside weaker third- and fifth-grade outcomes is something a parent may want to discuss with the school directly. Participation rates for the assessments were not reported, and no multi-year trend data was available, so it is hard to say whether this year's results are part of a larger pattern or a one-year snapshot. We looked for information on special education and English learner populations but found none reported, so those gaps go unnamed rather than guessed at.
Housing in the Vaughan ZIP code is inexpensive by any standard. Typical home values sit well below the Mississippi state benchmark and far below the national figure, and the area has seen a recent run of price appreciation that outpaced both the state and national rates. For a family looking to buy, the estimated monthly mortgage cost is modest, and the price-to-income ratio is below the national level, meaning ownership is comparatively reachable here. Rents were not available in the data. The broader economy is constrained. Median household income in Vaughan is far below the national median, and labor-force participation runs considerably lower than the national rate. No major new housing developments or commercial projects were identified, and population estimates suggest the community has been losing residents over the past couple of decades. This is a place where affordable housing is not the obstacle; economic opportunity is.
The Yazoo County School District itself provided little in the way of recent parent-relevant changes. We searched for information on referendums, curriculum overhauls, or shifts in district priorities and found nothing of lasting impact, so we left that out rather than guess. Information on school environment details like discipline policies, staffing ratios, attendance figures, course offerings, and a federal locale classification was also not available. Title I status and magnet status were not reported, and the school type was unspecified in the data. These absences mean the portrait here is thinner than it would be for a school with fuller reporting, and a family considering Linwood would benefit from asking the school directly about what the public data does not cover.
After fifth grade, students move on to Yazoo County Middle School and Yazoo County High School, both located elsewhere in the district. For a family living in or near Vaughan, Linwood is the neighborhood option, small and close to home, with a student body that reflects the community it sits in. The fourth-grade results suggest the school can produce strong academic outcomes when things align. The weaker third- and fifth-grade numbers, the small size, and the limited publicly available information on support services and staffing are the parts a parent would want to explore further before deciding. This is a school where a visit and a direct conversation with staff would tell you more than any data page can.
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