NCES CCD 2024-25 5 schools MS

Best-Resourced Schools in Ridgeland, MS

5 public K-12 schools in Ridgeland from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

5
Schools
3,079
Students
51.2/100
Avg Resource Index
11.7:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Ridgeland has more public-school enrollment than 30% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Ridgeland's 5 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

Secondary campuses occupy an unusually large share

2 of the 5 listed Ridgeland schools are classified as high schools, a substantial share of the local portfolio. Advanced-course access, counseling, and graduation-stage staffing therefore have more weight in the city Resource Index average than they do in an elementary-heavy system.

A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales

Ridgeland lists only 5 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 47 to 995 students, a 21-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.

City enrollment
Top 70%
School count
Top 99%
Resource Index average
89th percentile
Teacher staffing
90th percentile

Ridgeland High School accounts for 32.3% of all Ridgeland public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Ridgeland-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Ridgeland school enrollment varies 21× across entities

Ridgeland school enrollment ranges from 47 students (lowest) to 995 students (highest), a spread of 948 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Ridgeland reports 70.6% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Ridgeland operates one school district — a single-district system

Ridgeland's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Ridgeland student-teacher ratio is 11.7:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Madison Co Pre School 69
2. Old Town Middle 57
3. Ann Smith Elementary 49
4. Highland Elementary 48
5. Ridgeland High School 33

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Ridgeland

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Madison Co Pre School 59.5/100
  2. 2 Ann Smith Elementary 57.6/100
  3. 3 Highland Elementary 55.4/100
  4. 4 Old Town Middle 53.9/100
  5. 5 Ridgeland High School 49.4/100

What do families ask about schools in Ridgeland?

Which Ridgeland school has the highest Resource Investment Index?

Madison Co Pre School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Ridgeland schools in this federal-data comparison at 69/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Ridgeland, MS?

Ridgeland has 5 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,079 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.7:1.

Other Cities in Mississippi

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Mississippi →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.