Middle Schools in Hattiesburg

The Hattiesburg Public School District in Mississippi is home to two middle schools: N R Burger Middle School and Hattiesburg Steam Academy. Both schools serve students in grades 6-8 and face the challenge of having 100% of their students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage in the student population.

While both schools are performing reasonably well within the district and state, Hattiesburg Steam Academy stands out for its exceptional 6th grade test scores in English Language Arts and Mathematics, which exceeded the district and state averages in the 2024-2025 and 2023-2024 school years. This suggests the school may be particularly effective in supporting student learning in the core academic subjects at the 6th grade level. In contrast, N R Burger Middle School's 7th and 8th grade test scores in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science were generally on par with or slightly below the district and state averages during the same time period.

Both schools face the challenge of high chronic absenteeism rates, with 23.9% of students being chronically absent in the 2022-2023 school year, which is higher than the state average. This is an area that may require further investigation and targeted interventions to improve student attendance. Additionally, the schools' relatively low student-teacher ratios, with N R Burger Middle School at 10.4 and Hattiesburg Steam Academy at 10.2 students per teacher in the 2023-2024 school year, suggest they may have the capacity to provide more individualized attention to students.