Middle Schools in Jones County

Gray Station Middle School and Clifton Ridge Middle School are the two middle schools serving grades 6-8 in Jones County, a district ranked 68th out of 201 in Georgia. These schools present a clear contrast in performance, with Gray Station emerging as the standout and Clifton Ridge showing pockets of strength alongside areas needing improvement.

Gray Station Middle School is the clear leader in the county, earning a 4-star rating for three consecutive years and climbing to 107th out of 578 Georgia middle schools (81st percentile). Its academic performance is exceptional, particularly in advanced coursework—100% proficiency in Algebra I and 91.3% in HS Physical Science, both far exceeding state averages. Gray Station also outperforms Clifton Ridge dramatically in grade-level math, with an especially striking 27.4-point gap in 8th grade (65.3% vs. 37.9%). The school's chronic absenteeism rate of 14.2% is well below both the district (23.1%) and state (17.7%) averages, and it has shown year-over-year improvement in most subjects, including a notable 10.3-point jump in Social Studies.

Clifton Ridge Middle School, while ranked 251st (57th percentile) with a 3-star rating, demonstrates excellence in advanced coursework—88.9% proficiency in both Algebra I and HS Physical Science. However, it struggles with grade-level proficiency, particularly in math, where all three grade levels fall below state averages (6th: 29.3%, 7th: 28.1%, 8th: 37.9%). The school serves a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students (45.2% vs. 36.8%) and has a higher chronic absenteeism rate (21.7%), which may contribute to the performance gap. Despite spending $1,532 more per student and having a slightly better student-teacher ratio, Clifton Ridge lags behind Gray Station, suggesting that resources alone aren't closing the divide. Encouragingly, Clifton Ridge showed strong gains in Social Studies (+16 points) and Algebra I (+11.6 points) this year, though 7th grade math declined by 5.2 points. For parents, Gray Station offers consistently strong academics and low absenteeism, while Clifton Ridge provides excellent advanced coursework opportunities but faces challenges in standard grade-level math.