Summary:
Zip code 38821 is home to just one middle school, Amory Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of 348 students in the Amory School District. Because there is only one middle school in this area, this analysis focuses on how the school compares to state averages and its own past performance rather than side-by-side comparisons with neighboring schools.
Amory Middle School serves a predominantly economically disadvantaged student body, with 70.11% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. On a positive note, the school maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12.5 to 1, allowing for relatively small class sizes. However, chronic absenteeism is a serious concern — 39.0% of students were chronically absent in 2023–2024, well above the district rate of 27.4% and the state rate of 23.9%. The school's state ranking has also slipped dramatically in the most recent year, falling from the 76th percentile (4 stars) in 2023–2024 to the 45th percentile (2 stars) in 2025–2026.
Academically, the 2025–2026 school year brought significant declines across most subjects. The most striking drop was in 8th grade math, where proficiency fell from 53.9% to 24.3%, a nearly 30-point decline. Eighth grade science fell from 72.0% to 43.2%, and 8th grade ELA fell from 51.7% to 29.5%. The current 8th grade cohort appears to be struggling far more than the previous one. Still, there are bright spots: 6th grade ELA proficiency was 60.1%, well above the state average of 48.0%, and 6th grade math was essentially on par with the state. The district itself remains strong, ranked 40th out of 134 districts with a 4-star rating, which suggests targeted interventions at the middle school level could help reverse the recent downward trend.
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