Hattiesburg^↗ET Public School District's four-year graduation rate fell to 90.7% for the 2024-25 senior cohort, down 3.7 percentage points from the previous published rate of 94.4%.

The latest figure leaves Hattiesburg essentially level with Mississippi. The state rate was 90.8%, putting the district 0.1 percentage point below it. That replaces the story told by the prior report, when Hattiesburg stood well above the statewide figure.

The new result does not erase the district's long rise. Hattiesburg's published rate increased from 68.3% in the earliest report in this series to 90.7% in the newest one, a gain of 22.4 percentage points. It does change the endpoint: the district has now posted two declines since reaching 96.1% for the 2022-23 senior cohort.

A long rise with a lower endpoint

The full series shows distinct phases. Hattiesburg remained below 80% through the 2020 accountability report. Its rate then moved from 79.3% to 83.1%, 89.7%, 94.8% and 96.1% across the next four reports.

The last two reports reversed part of that rise. The rate fell first to 94.4% and then to 90.7%, a combined decline of 5.4 percentage points from the peak.

Even after that retreat, the latest rate remains 22.4 points above the earliest figure. The record supports a durable long-term improvement and a meaningful recent decline at the same time. It does not support describing the current result as a new high or as an expanding lead over Mississippi.

The latest cohort

The newest package record reports 234 on-time graduates from a cohort of 258 students. That leaves 24 students who did not graduate within four years. The same state report lists a 4.7% dropout rate for the district.

Those measures are related but not interchangeable. A student who did not graduate on time is not necessarily classified as a dropout, so the difference between 24 non-graduates and the published dropout rate should not be treated as a contradiction.

The Mississippi Department of Education's February 2026 report identifies the figures as the rates for the 2024-25 senior cohort used in 2026 accountability. That timing matters in the 2026-27 school year: these are the most recent published graduation figures, not a live count of this year's seniors.

Gains were not one-directional

Across the twelve year-to-year changes in the series, Hattiesburg recorded eight increases and four declines. The largest gain was 7.7 percentage points in the 2020 accountability report. The two newest changes were declines of 1.7 and 3.7 points.

Hattiesburg has still reported a rate at or above 90% in four consecutive accountability reports. The newest figure sits just above that threshold and almost exactly at the statewide rate.

The public data describes the pattern but does not establish its cause. Changes in district programs, student circumstances and reporting practices could all affect graduation results; this record alone cannot assign the rise or the recent decline to any one of them. The next report will show whether 90.7% marks a new plateau or another point in a still-moving series.

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