Best Middle Schools in Midfield, AL

Middle Schools in Midfield, Alabama, consist of a single school, Rutledge School, which serves grades 5 through 8 and enrolls 288 students in the Midfield City district, a small, predominantly low-income community where the district ranks in the bottom 4% of Alabama school systems.

For parents, the most important takeaway is that Rutledge School faces serious academic challenges, particularly in mathematics. Math proficiency starts low at 16.98% in 5th grade and collapses to just 2.99% by 8th grade, compared to a state average of 26.36% — meaning nearly all 8th graders are not meeting grade-level math standards. English proficiency is somewhat better, ranging from 43.4% in 5th grade down to 30.3% in 8th grade, but still trails the state by roughly 26 to 28 points. Science proficiency in 8th grade is also very low at 18.18% versus the state's 54.12%. The school's state ranking has been consistently in the bottom 10% for three straight years, with percentile ranks of 10, 7, and 8.

However, there are some positive signs. Chronic absenteeism is remarkably low at just 2.7%, far below the district's 5.6% and the state's 12.0%, showing that students are consistently attending school. The school also spends a substantial $13,639 per student, though the student-teacher ratio of 19.8:1 is relatively high. With 90.28% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, the school serves a high-need population. The combination of strong attendance and a relative strength in 5th-grade English suggests that with targeted interventions — especially in math and upper-grade instruction — there is real potential for improvement, even though current outcomes remain far below state averages.