Education rankings
U.S. News and World Report recently released its latest education rankings including all Mississippi high schools.
The rankings are based on a formula that analyzes ACT scores and other testing data as reported to the Mississippi Department of Education. In addition to focusing on academics, the study looks at data from the Office of Healthy Schools that oversees students’ wellness through nutrition, physical education and counseling programs.
Marshall County’s four public high schools showed up on the list in the bottom third in the state. Exact rankings were only provided for the top 100 schools. A total of 241 high schools around the state were included in the study.
Byhalia was shown to have 474 students in high school. The racial breakdown of those students was 51% black, 22% Hispanic, 20% white and 7% coming from two or more races. The school had a graduation rate of 85% with a math proficiency of 58%, reading proficiency of 25% and science proficiency of 42%.
H.W. Byers reported 176 high school students broken down as 54% black, 27% white, 14% Hispanic and 5% of two or more races. Their graduation rate was 81%. They showed a math proficiency of 68%, reading proficiency of 38% and science proficiency of 41%.
Potts Camp showed an enrollment of 187 students – 60% of which were white, 32% black, 4% Hispanic and 4% of two or more races. Their graduation rate was 96%. Potts Camp proficiency scores were 34% math, 38% reading and 44% science.
Holly Springs High showed an enrollment of 297 students comprised of 93% black, 3% Hispanic, 2% white and 2% of two or more races. Their graduation rate was 95%. They scored 46% proficient in math, 22% in reading and 55% in science.
The top 10 ranked high schools in the state according to U.S. News were Ocean Springs, Lewisburg in Olive Branch, Hernando, Pass Christian, Raleigh, Petal, West Harrison in Gulfport, Biloxi, Long Beach and Madison Central.
The U.S. News and World Report survey did not have any academic scoring for Marshall Academy. It did show the school with a total enrollment, K-12, of 244 with a minority student enrollment of 14%. The student teacher ration was listed as 11:1.