Graduation rates within the three local school districts were above or just below the state average.

The following figures were calculated by the Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Accountability based on a “four-year adjusted cohort method.” The report goes on to state, “This method determines the high school completion status for students four years after entering grade 9 for the first time during the school year ending 2013-2014 and graduated within the cohort window, which ended July 31, 2017.”

According to the report, the graduation rate in the Pearl River County School District for the school year ending in 2017 was 87.9 percent of the 247 students outlined in the criteria above.

Of those, 124 were female and 123 were male, with the majority, 228, being listed as white. Exact numbers for other ethnicities were not provided in the report for the Pearl River County School District.

In the Picayune Separate School District, 81.1 percent of the 249 students graduated.

Of those students, 124 were male and 125 were female, with 69 being identified as black and 161 being identified as white.

Within the Poplarville Separate School District, 86.7 percent of its 150 students graduated. The number of male and female students in that rank was the same at 75. The number of students being identified as white was 124, and 24 students were identified as black.

The report also lists dropout rates for each district. Within the Pearl River County School District, the reported drop out rate was 5.7 percent of the total student body listed above. Poplarville School District reported a drop out rate of 10.7 percent and Picayune School District reported a drop out rate of 14.5 percent.

Statewide, 83 percent of the 33,948 students enrolled in high school during the criteria period graduated, of which 16,856 were female and 17,092 were male. Of those numbers, 16,857 were black and 15,498 were white. The difference was comprised of Hispanic, 895, Asian, 383, Native American, 59, and other races.