Best Public Schools in Utica, MS

Utica, Mississippi is home to a single school, Utica Elementary / Middle School, which serves grades PK-8 and has a total enrollment of 322 students. The school is part of the Hinds County School District, which is ranked 75 out of 130 districts in the state and has a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Utica Elementary / Middle School faces significant challenges in terms of academic performance, particularly in English Language Arts, where proficiency rates are consistently below the district and state averages across all grade levels. In Mathematics, the school's performance is more mixed, with some grades performing above the district and state, while others are below. However, the school's 5th and 8th grade Science proficiency rates are close to or above the district and state averages. The school's student population is predominantly African American (85.09%), with smaller percentages of Hispanic (9.32%) and White (4.97%) students, and an extremely high percentage (99.07%) of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of poverty in the community.

Despite the school's relatively low student-teacher ratio of 11:1 and above-average per-student spending of $10,660 in the 2018-2019 school year, the academic performance data suggests that these resources may not be optimized or effectively utilized to drive student learning and achievement. Addressing the school's challenges will likely require a multi-faceted approach that considers both instructional practices and the unique needs of the school community.