Middle Schools in Jackson Public Schools

Jackson Public Schools oversees 7 middle schools serving grades 6–8 in the Jackson, Mississippi area, enrolling roughly 3,000 students who are almost universally eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The Jackson Public Schools district ranks 112th of 134 Mississippi districts, but that low rating masks an extraordinary divide: two of these schools are among the best middle schools in the state, while five are among the worst.

Bailey APAC Middle School and Northwest Middle School are the clear standouts — both ranked in the top 10% of Mississippi middle schools for three straight years, earning 4 stars. In 8th-grade science, Northwest posts an 87.3% proficiency rate versus a 30.7% district average. Bailey APAC achieves 76.6% proficiency in 7th-grade math. They share the same street address, suggesting a shared campus or program pathway. Both also serve extremely high-poverty populations (99–100% free/reduced-price lunch), proving poverty alone does not determine outcomes.

At the other extreme, Peeples Middle School ranks dead last in Mississippi (260 of 260), followed closely by Powell Middle School, Blackburn Middle School, Kirksey Middle School, and Cardozo Middle School — all in the bottom 3%. The gap is enormous: the two high performers average 66.7% proficiency in 8th-grade math vs. just 11.6% for the other five. Chronic absenteeism is a major warning sign, averaging 38.8% across the low-performing five (Blackburn leads at 57.6%). Kirksey is declining alarmingly fast, falling from the 28th to 2nd percentile in two years. Notably, advanced Algebra I pass rates above 85% at four schools — including low-ranked Kirksey and Blackburn — show hidden pockets of academic strength that could be expanded.