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Jackson, Mississippi - 1 schools
An equity score of 49/100 ranks Joel E Smilow Collegiate #77 of 146 districts in Mississippi (state average 51). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,691 per pupil, Joel E Smilow Collegiate ranks #63 of 147 Mississippi districts by per-pupil spending (Mississippi districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
569
Total Enrollment
1
Schools
$11,691
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Joel E Smilow Collegiate operates 1 public schools serving 569 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Mississippi. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Hinds County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,691 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 147 Mississippi districts by per-pupil spending. See how Mississippi compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 28.7% local, 39.4% state, and 31.9% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 49/100, ranked #77 of 146 in Mississippi against a state average of 51, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
and 46.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 96.9% African American, 1.5% Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% White across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Joel E Smilow Collegiate, enrolling 547 students (100% of the district's total enrollment).
Joel E Smilow Collegiate accounts for 96.1% of all Joel E Smilow Collegiate student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Joel E Smilow Collegiate a distant remainder — means Joel E Smilow Collegiate-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Joel E Smilow Collegiate has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 100.0% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Joel E Smilow Collegiate chronic absenteeism rate is 46.3% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Joel E Smilow Collegiate has 1 school, including 1 elementary. Total enrollment is 569 students.
How much does Joel E Smilow Collegiate spend per student?
Joel E Smilow Collegiate spends $11,691 per student. The district has an equity score of 49/100, ranking #77 in Mississippi.
What is the demographic composition of Joel E Smilow Collegiate?
Joel E Smilow Collegiate students are 96.9% African American, 1.5% Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% White, 0.2% Asian, averaged across 1 school. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.
What is the equity score for Joel E Smilow Collegiate?
Joel E Smilow Collegiate has an equity score of 49/100, ranking #77 out of 146 districts in Mississippi.