Summary
Jefferson Middle School in Jefferson, GA, serves 1,009 students in grades 6 through 8 and is part of the highly rated Jefferson City district, which ranks 5th out of 201 districts in Georgia. This school has built a strong reputation over the past decade, earning a 5-star rating in nine of the last ten years and consistently ranking in the top 10% of middle schools statewide. While its most recent state rank of 66th out of 578 schools (89th percentile) is a slight dip from last year's 22nd-place finish, test scores have remained stable or improved, suggesting other schools are simply improving at a faster pace rather than any decline here.
What truly sets Jefferson Middle apart is its exceptional academic performance across the board. In math, proficiency rates range from 72.7% to 78.5% across grades 6-8, compared to state averages in the low 40s—a gap of roughly 30 to 36 percentage points. The school also shines in 8th-grade social studies (62.6% vs. 40.2% statewide). Perhaps most impressive is the school's support for special education students, ranking in the 94th percentile nationally for that subgroup, along with strong results for female (91st percentile) and Hispanic (90th percentile) students. Even its lowest-performing subgroup, multi-racial students, ranks above the state median. Chronic absenteeism is remarkably low at just 6.8%, far better than the state average of 17.7%, indicating students are engaged and showing up ready to learn.
When compared to nearby schools, the picture is striking. Jefferson's proficiency rates in the 70s and 80s dwarf those of neighboring Barrow County schools like Westside Middle School, Bear Creek Middle School, and Russell Middle School, where proficiency rates sit in the 20s and 30s. However, against Dove Creek Middle School in the Oconee County district, the competition is much tighter—Dove Creek edges out Jefferson in 8th-grade math (89.7% vs. 76.9%) and social studies (82.2% vs. 62.6%). Notably, Jefferson achieves these results while spending $11,192 per student, less than many lower-performing peers like East Jackson Middle School ($14,564) and Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School ($19,221), demonstrating remarkable efficiency and a long-term track record of excellence.
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