Summary:
Tallassee City is home to just one middle school, Southside Middle School, which serves grades 5 through 8 and enrolls 424 students. This single school represents the entire middle school experience for the district, so its performance is the only benchmark for families in the area.
Southside Middle School ranks in the 67th percentile statewide (144th out of 443 schools), placing it in the upper third of Alabama middle schools. Its biggest academic strength is 8th-grade Science, where 62.14% of students are proficient—a full 8 points above the state average of 54.12%. English Language Arts is also a consistent bright spot, with 5th, 7th, and 8th graders all outperforming state averages. However, Mathematics remains a challenge, with 8th-grade proficiency at just 30.1%, though that is still above the state's 26.36% average. The school also boasts an exceptionally low chronic absenteeism rate of 4.6%, far better than the district's 8.5% and the state's 12.0%, suggesting students are engaged and attending regularly.
One of the most striking findings is the dramatic year-over-year improvement in 8th-grade Science and Math scores. Science proficiency more than doubled from 30.77% to 62.14%, while Math jumped from 17.31% to 30.1% between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. This volatility may reflect changes in curriculum, teaching, or testing preparation, and it will be important to see if these gains hold. The school also shows a typical "middle school slump" in Math, with proficiency peaking in 5th grade (37.37%) and dipping in 7th grade (26.67%) before recovering slightly. Notably, nearly 60% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, yet the school still achieves strong results and low absenteeism—a sign of effective support for economically disadvantaged families. With a student-teacher ratio of 15.7:1 and per-student spending of $8,417, Southside Middle School offers a solid, well-rounded education, though parents should watch Math performance closely.
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