Summary:
There is one middle school in zip code 28756: Polk County Middle School, serving grades 6 through 8 in Mill Spring, NC, as part of Polk County Schools. This small, single-school area means all local middle-grade results come from this one campus, which has 454 students and a nearly universal free/reduced lunch eligibility rate of 99.34%.
Polk County Middle School posts its strongest results in reading and science. Eighth grade reading proficiency is 72.0%, far above the state’s 56.1%, and 8th grade science is 76.7% versus the state average of 68.6%. Seventh grade reading also beats the state, but math is a weaker spot: no grade level reaches the state average in the latest year, with 6th grade math 4.3 points below. The school’s biggest concern is chronic absenteeism at 31.0%, which is about 7 points above both the district and state rates. That matters because missing school makes it harder for students to keep up, and it may be one reason the school’s overall state ranking has slipped from the 77th percentile three years ago to the 61st percentile now, dropping from 4 stars to 3 stars.
Looking at year-over-year changes, the most striking shift is in 6th grade reading, which fell from 62.9% to 52.9%—a 10-point drop that moved the school from well above the state to just below it. The previous year showed stronger reading and science across most grades, plus math gains in 7th and 8th grade, so the current declines are not uniform. The student-teacher ratio of 11.1 is favorable, and the district itself still rates 4 stars. For parents, this is a high-poverty school that clearly succeeds in upper-grade reading and science, but its attendance issues, math performance, and recent ranking slide deserve attention as the school works to regain momentum.
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