Summary:
Newton Municipal School District contains one middle school, N H Pilate Middle School, serving grades 6 through 8 with 178 students in Newton, Mississippi. As the district's only middle school, all district-level academic metrics reflect this single school's performance, making school and district improvement efforts one and the same.
N H Pilate Middle School faces significant academic challenges. In the most recent testing year, every subject and grade level fell below state averages. The largest gap was in 6th grade mathematics, where just 12.9% of students scored proficient compared to 52.7% statewide — a nearly 40-point gap. Seventh grade English Language Arts was also a major concern at only 16% proficiency versus 36.7% statewide. The school's state ranking has declined sharply, falling from the 34th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 15th percentile in 2025–2026, with its star rating dropping from 2 stars to 1 star. Year-over-year results were inconsistent, with 6th grade ELA improving from 26.5% to 38.8% while 6th grade math collapsed from 42.9% to 12.9%, indicating uneven progress across grade levels and subjects.
Despite the academic struggles, the school has notable strengths. Chronic absenteeism is exceptionally low at 6.5%, far below the state rate of 23.9%, which speaks to strong attendance and student engagement. The student-teacher ratio of 13.5 provides a favorable environment for instruction. However, with 90.45% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, the school serves a deeply economically disadvantaged population that likely requires additional resources and targeted interventions in literacy and foundational math skills. Because the district consists of just this one middle school, improvement efforts at N H Pilate will directly determine the district's overall performance.
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