Summary:
There is just one middle school in zip code 38921, Charleston Middle School, serving grades 5–8 with 208 students in the East Tallahatchie School District in Charleston, Mississippi. Since this is the only middle school in the area, any family looking here will be considering this single school, so the details below matter most.
Charleston Middle School faces serious challenges and ranks in the bottom tier of Mississippi middle schools. For the 2025–2026 school year, it ranked 229th out of 260 schools, placing it at the 12th percentile with a 1-star rating, though it improved from a 0-star rating the year before. Proficiency rates are far below state averages in every subject: English Language Arts is just 20.8% versus the state’s 45.4%, math is 29.7% versus 52.9%, and science is 33.4% versus 64.7%. One in ten 8th graders (9.8%) is proficient in ELA. The school’s student–teacher ratio is 18.2:1, and nearly 99% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating very high poverty levels.
The most urgent issue for parents to know is chronic absenteeism: 43.2% of students are chronically absent, nearly double the state rate of 23.9%. This likely drives much of the low achievement. There are small signs of progress, mainly in math — 6th grade math jumped from 13.5% to 33.3% proficiency, and 7th grade math improved as well. However, science scores dropped sharply, from 46.7% to 33.4% overall. Because the school has only about 50 students per grade, year-to-year swings can represent just a handful of kids. For families, this means attendance and targeted academic support will be critical if their child attends Charleston Middle School.
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