Summary:
Zip code 30824 is home to just one middle school, Thomson-McDuffie Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 in Thomson, Georgia, with an enrollment of 667 students.
Thomson-McDuffie Middle School serves a student body where 90.1% qualify for free or reduced lunch, and it faces significant academic challenges. The school's statewide ranking has slipped from the 33rd percentile in 2024-2025 to the 19th percentile in 2025-2026, dropping from a 2-star to a 1-star rating. The most striking contrast is in mathematics: 8th graders taking Algebra I scored 49.1% proficient, essentially matching the state average of 48.1%, while grade-level math proficiency ranges from just 19.1% in 6th grade to 30.1% in 8th grade—lagging the state by 16 to 22 points. This suggests the advanced Algebra I cohort performs comparably to state peers, while the broader student population struggles with grade-level math. Science is the school's weakest subject at just 8.5% proficiency in 8th grade, a 21.2-point gap from the state, and Social Studies proficiency plummeted from 26.6% to 11.7% year-over-year, now trailing the state by 28.5 points.
Chronic absenteeism is a concern, with 23.5% of students chronically absent compared to the state average of 17.7%. The school's proficiency rates are identical to the McDuffie County district for nearly every subject, indicating it is the district's sole middle school. Per-student spending is $12,364 with a 14.8:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Every subject with comparable data declined from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, with the largest drops in Social Studies (-14.9 points) and Algebra I (-10.5 points). This consistent downward trajectory across multiple metrics points to systemic challenges, and targeted interventions in attendance, foundational math skills, and science and social studies instruction may be critical for improvement.
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