Summary:
Zip code 38732 is home to exactly one middle school, Cleveland Central Middle School, part of the Cleveland School District, serving grades 7–8 with 423 students in Cleveland, Mississippi. With no other middle schools in the zip code for comparison, this school's performance is best understood against state averages and its own year-over-year trends.
Cleveland Central Middle School serves an almost uniformly high-poverty student body, with 99.53% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and a student–teacher ratio of 16.5 to 1. The school has shown a positive trajectory in its statewide ranking, improving from the 12th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 23rd percentile in 2025–2026, though it still ranks in the lower quarter of Mississippi middle schools (199th out of 260 schools, 1 star). Its district ranks 89th out of 134 districts statewide. One concern is chronic absenteeism, which stands at 26.8%, exceeding both the district's 22.7% and the state's 23.9%.
Academically, the standout story is 7th-grade math, which improved dramatically from 33.4% to 52.8% proficiency in 2025–2026, nearly matching the state average of 57.7%. However, 8th-grade math remains a critical weak spot at just 22.1% proficiency versus the 51.4% state average, creating an unusually large 30.7-point gap between grade levels. 8th-grade ELA also declined from 31.0% to 25.5%, falling further behind the state average of 40.9%, while 7th-grade ELA improved to 26.8%. Science proficiency rose to 48.6%, close to the state's 57.8%. In short, the school is on an upward trajectory and showing real gains in some areas, but 8th-grade math, declining 8th-grade literacy, and high absenteeism remain pressing challenges.
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