Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School

Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School is a public school in Miami, FL, serving 448 students in grades 6-8 as part of the Miami-Dade district, which is ranked in the top 30% of Florida districts. However, the school itself has historically ranked in the bottom 10-15% of all Florida middle schools, currently sitting at the 13th percentile (1 star) for the 2025-2026 school year. The school serves a predominantly low-income population, with 54.69% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in the 2024-2025 school year, a figure that has been declining from a high of 67.77% in 2022-2023.

The most significant challenge facing Georgia Jones Ayers is an exceptionally high chronic absenteeism rate of 55.4% for the 2023-2024 school year, which is nearly double the district average of 28.2% and far higher than nearby high-performing schools like International Studies Charter Middle School (12.3%) and Mater International Preparatory (15.2%). This crisis-level absenteeism is likely the primary driver of the school's poor performance in standard grade-level subjects, where only 33% of 6th graders were proficient in ELA and 36% in Math, compared to district averages of 67% in both subjects. Interestingly, the school shows a stark "two-tiered" academic performance: students in advanced end-of-course exams excel, with 93% passing Algebra 1 and 100% passing Biology 1, far exceeding district averages. This suggests the school effectively supports a small group of high-achieving students, but the majority struggle with foundational skills.

Georgia Jones Ayers is not an isolated case; it is part of a cluster of struggling schools in northern Miami-Dade County, including Brownsville Middle School (10th percentile), Jose De Diego Middle School (9th percentile), and Madison Middle School (13th percentile), all facing similar challenges with high absenteeism and low test scores. Despite spending more per student ($11,969) than higher-performing neighbors like Mater Lakes Collegiate Academy Middle School ($8,663) and International Studies Charter ($9,888), the school achieves significantly lower results. There are some positive trends: proficiency rates in most FAST subjects have shown slight improvement over the last three years, and the percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch has been declining, suggesting recent interventions may be starting to have a small impact.