Summary:
Zip code 36877 is home to a single middle school, Smiths Station Junior High School, which serves grades 7 and 8 with a substantial enrollment of 910 students in the Lee County district.
As the only middle school in this area, Smiths Station Junior High presents a mixed academic profile. The school’s clear strength is English Language Arts, where 7th graders achieve 60.39% proficiency and 8th graders reach 55.58%, both at or above state averages. However, mathematics is a significant concern—only 17.36% of 7th graders and 20.19% of 8th graders are proficient, well below the state averages of 24.46% and 26.36%. Science performance is close to the state average at 52.49%. The school has seen a steady decline in its state ranking, dropping from the 74th percentile (4 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 59th percentile (3 stars) in 2025-2026, a fall of 65 places. Chronic absenteeism is notably high at 15.4%, compared to 12.4% for the district and 12.0% statewide, which may be impacting academic outcomes.
For parents, the key takeaway is that this school excels in literacy but struggles significantly with math. The student-teacher ratio is 16.8, and about 44% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. One interesting data point shows 6th-grade test scores (45.65% in math and 60.33% in English) that are much stronger than 7th and 8th-grade math scores, suggesting a possible academic decline between 6th and 7th grade—though this could also be a data anomaly since the school’s listed grade range is 7-8. The most recent per-student spending figure is from 2018-2019 at $8,582, which is outdated and makes it difficult to assess current resource allocation. Overall, parents should be aware of the math proficiency gap and the rising absenteeism rate when considering this school.
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