Crystal Springs Middle School

Crystal Springs Middle School serves 365 students in grades 5 through 8 in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, a small community in the Copiah County School District. The school has earned a 1-star rating in every recent SchoolDigger ranking and currently sits in the bottom quarter of Mississippi middle schools — 212th out of 260, or the 18th percentile. Although the Copiah County School District itself is rated as a mid-tier 3-star district, Crystal Springs stands out as one of its lower-performing schools.

This is a high-poverty school: 100% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, compared with 70.5% at Byram Middle School and 45.3% at Florence Middle School. Chronic absenteeism is also a serious concern — 26.4% of students were chronically absent in 2023–2024, more than double the pre-pandemic rate of 10% and above the state average of 23.9%. Yet nearby Hazlehurst Middle School, which has nearly identical poverty and even higher absenteeism, outperforms Crystal Springs in every subject: 32.1% vs. 26.6% in 6–8 ELA, 47.6% vs. 40.0% in math, and 52.7% vs. 31.3% in 8th grade science.

There are some bright spots. Math proficiency has improved dramatically since 2022–2023 — 5th grade math jumped from 6% to 45% proficient, and 7th grade math rose from 11.4% to 47.3% — suggesting that targeted math support is working. But literacy remains the biggest challenge: only 21.7% of 7th graders and 23.2% of 8th graders are proficient in English Language Arts, and 8th grade science proficiency is volatile, dropping from 50.6% to 31.3% in the latest year. Additionally, unlike Florence Middle School and Byram Middle School, Crystal Springs does not report Algebra I results, suggesting its students may not have access to the same advanced math opportunities that prepare students for high school.