Academics
Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said "Compared to Indianola Academy, Gentry High School is an open book, its academic struggles exposed to the world" and that "Gentry has struggled with test scores since the state's accountability system began in the 1990s." [6] In 2011, 56% had passing scores in Algebra, 17% had passing scores in Biology, 51% of Gentry students had passing scores in English, and 42% had passing scores in History. [6]
Some teachers do not permit students to take home textbooks because they fear that the textbooks will be lost. In the 2011-2012 school year, the school provided older textbooks on government stating that George H. W. Bush was the President of the United States when the president was Barack Obama. [6]
Carr said that "students like" LaToysha Brown, a Gentry student quoted in Carr's 2012 article, said that "the poor scores are at least partly because the school lacks the resources it needs to be successful." [6]
Student behavior
The school uses paddling, a form of corporal punishment, to correct student misbehavior. In 2012 Earl Watkins, the conservator appointed by the State of Mississippi to oversee the Indianola School District, said that "Because corporal punishment has been a practice for many years in the district, professional development must precede the reduction/phase-out of it." [6] He said that teachers had been taught other disciplining strategies. [6]
Primus Apolonio, a Gentry student, said in 2012 that, as paraphrased by Sarah Carr of The Atlantic , "poorly behaved students also keep Gentry down — partly by scaring away the teachers." [6] He explained that "The students are disrespectful to the point where the teachers don't stay. And the school [administration] does not do anything but paddle them and send them back to class." [6] Apolonio said that the lack of resources contributes to the discipline issues, explaining that "During the winter it gets cold and the heaters don't work in the classrooms. Of course the kids are going to get more disruptive." [6]
There were six Teach for America teachers brought into the school in the fall of 2011. Normally Teach for America teachers make two-year commitments. According to Gentry employees, five left after one year because, as paraphrased by Carr, "for personal reasons, or because of frustration with the job." [6]
Sunflower County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,971. Its largest city and county seat is Indianola.
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Inverness is a town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,019 at the 2010 census. As the town had the largest cotton gin in the Delta, it served as a gathering place for farmers from the region when they brought their cotton for processing. The town was heavily damaged by a tornado in 1971.
Indianola is a city in and the county seat of Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta. The population was 10,683 at the 2010 census.
Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.
The Cleveland School District (CSD) is a public school district based in Cleveland, Mississippi (USA).
The Sunflower County Consolidated School District (SCCSD), formerly the Sunflower County School District (SCSD), is a public school district with its headquarters in Indianola, Mississippi in the Mississippi Delta. The district serves all of Sunflower County.
The Drew School District was a public school district based in Drew, Mississippi. The school district's attendance boundary included Drew, Rome, and the employee residences of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman), located in an unincorporated area. In July 2014, it was merged into the Sunflower County Consolidated School District.
The Indianola School District is a former public school district based in Indianola, Mississippi (USA). In July 2014, it was merged into the Sunflower County Consolidated School District.
The Indianola Academy is a K-12 private school in Indianola, Mississippi founded as a segregation academy. Indianola Academy comprises an elementary school, a middle school, and a college preparatory high school. Indianola Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution. As of 2012 most white teenagers in Indianola attend Indianola Academy instead of the public high schools.
Pillow Academy (PA) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, near Greenwood. It was founded by white parents in 1966 as a segregation academy to avoid having their children attend school with blacks.
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Central Delta Academy (CDA) was a private elementary and middle school in Inverness, Mississippi, that operated from 1969 to 2010. It was founded as a segregation academy by white parents fleeing newly integrated public schools. The school closed on May 21, 2010; its building was auctioned off several weeks later.
The Mississippi Delta region has had the most segregated schools -- and for the longest time—of any part of the United States. As recently as the 2016–2017 school year, East Side High School in Cleveland, Mississippi, was practically all black: 359 of 360 students were African-American.
Thomas E. Edwards, Sr. High School, formerly Ruleville Central High School (RCHS), is a public high school located in Ruleville, Mississippi, United States. It is a part of the Sunflower County Consolidated School District and had 381 students enrolled in Nov. 2012.
Drew High School was a public high school located in Drew, Mississippi. It was a part of the Drew School District. The school district's attendance boundary included Drew, Rome, and the employee residences of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman), located in an unincorporated area. It served grades 9 through 12 and later grades 8 through 12.
Restoration Ministries Christian Academy (RMCA) is a private K-12 Christian school located in Indianola, Mississippi. An outreach ministry of the Restoration Ministries of the Apostolic Faith, it as of 2015 has 84 students from the counties of Humphreys, Leflore, Sunflower, and Washington. Its student body is mostly black, and many black families wishing to avoid the public school system, as of 2012, choose to enroll their children in RMCA instead of the majority white Indianola Academy.
East Side High School was a senior high school in Cleveland, Mississippi, within the Mississippi Delta region. It was a part of the Cleveland School District and the building itself remains such as a middle school. In September 2017, it was merged into Cleveland Central High School.
The Mississippi Red Clay region was a center of education segregation. Before the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, Mississippi sponsored freedom of choice policies that effectively segregated schools. After Brown, the effort was private with some help from government. Government support has dwindled in every decade since. In the state capital, Jackson, some public schools were converted to white-only Council schools. Today, some all-white and mostly-white private schools remain throughout the region as a legacy of that period.
