Summary
South Middle School is a grades 6–8 public school in Grants Pass, Oregon, serving 610 students in Grants Pass School District 7. It ranks 100th of 371 Oregon middle schools in 2025–2026 (73rd percentile, 4 stars), up from 161st of 368 (56th percentile, 3 stars) in 2024–2025 and 224th of 367 (39th percentile, 2 stars) in 2021–2022—a 34-percentile-point gain in four years.
Among nearby middle schools, South has the highest latest statewide rank: North Middle School is 108th, Hanby Middle School 197th, Lincoln Savage Middle School 209th, and Fleming Middle School 223rd. South’s clearest advantage is math: 38.9% proficient across all grades, above the district’s 36.1%, the state’s 32.9%, and every nearby school, including North Middle School’s 31.9%. Its 7th grade math result—49.2% proficient—is especially strong. ELA is solid at 51.3%, above district and state and just behind North Middle School’s 52.5%. Science is the relative weak spot at 31.0%, above the state but below the district, North Middle School, and Lincoln Savage Middle School; 8th grade results are softer than South’s 6th and 7th grade results.
The school serves a high-poverty population by the free/reduced-lunch proxy (69.84%), though less high-poverty than these nearby schools. It spends the least per student in this comparison group ($16,477) and has a higher student-teacher ratio than most nearby schools, yet it has the best overall rank and math proficiency locally. Chronic absenteeism was 30.1%, below the district’s 31.8% and the state’s 33.5% but higher than at North Middle School and Hanby Middle School. Subgroup effectiveness is a major strength: low-income students rank in the 93rd percentile with 5 stars, and special education students improved from the 11th–18th percentile range to the 73rd percentile with 4 stars. Overall, this is an improving, relatively high-performing middle school with strong math, solid ELA, and clear areas to watch in science and 8th grade.
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