Summary:
George County School District is home to a single middle school, George County Middle School, serving grades 7–8 in the rural Lucedale, Mississippi area with 618 students and a 14.1 student-teacher ratio. The George County School District itself earns a strong 4-star rating (ranked 27th of 134 districts), but the middle school lags behind that reputation, ranking 143rd of 260 Mississippi middle schools with just 2 stars.
At George County Middle School, the standout academic strength is 8th-grade science, where 64.8% of students are proficient — 7 points above the state average and a remarkable jump from 48.6% the prior year. English Language Arts is mixed: 8th grade sits at 37.7% proficiency (3 points below the state), while 7th grade has slipped to 28.8%, creating a larger gap of nearly 8 points. Mathematics remains the biggest challenge — 7th-grade math proficiency is 43.4% versus 57.7% statewide, and 8th-grade math, while improved from 30.8% to 37.4%, still trails the state by 14 points. Overall, the school’s average proficiency across all subjects has risen from about 38.8% to 42.4%, slightly narrowing the gap with Mississippi’s average.
The most pressing concern is chronic absenteeism: 38.2% of students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent — well above the district rate of 31.8% and the state rate of 23.9%. With 67.31% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, this is a high-poverty school where attendance likely plays a critical role in academic performance. Encouragingly, the school’s state rank has improved from the 38th percentile in 2024–2025 to the 45th percentile in 2025–2026, though it remains below the 61st percentile and 3-star ranking it earned in 2023–2024. If attendance improves and the positive momentum in science and 8th-grade math continues, George County Middle School has a real path back to a higher rating.
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