Summary:
Grainger County Schools, ranked 89th out of 141 Tennessee districts, contains just one middle school: Rutledge Middle School, which serves grades 7–8 in Rutledge, TN, with an enrollment of 363 students and a per-student spending of $12,409.
As the district's only middle school, Rutledge Middle School is the sole benchmark for middle-level performance in Grainger County Schools, and it is a strong one. The school ranks in the 70th percentile statewide (177th out of 594 middle schools, 4 stars), a dramatic jump from the 41st percentile just two years earlier. Rutledge Middle outperforms the district average in all eight grade-by-subject combinations and beats the state in seven of the eight categories. Its greatest strength is Social Studies, where 7th graders post a 65.7% proficiency rate and 8th graders reach 62.4%, far exceeding state averages. Mathematics also shows a remarkable one-year improvement, jumping from 29.7% to 40.7% proficiency. The clearest area for improvement is 8th grade English Language Arts, where only 28.7% of students are proficient, below the state rate of 32.3%.
Attendance at Rutledge Middle School is a positive factor, with a 14.2% chronic absenteeism rate that is lower than both the district (17.2%) and the state (18.3%). Across all subjects, 7th graders outperform 8th graders, with the largest gap in ELA (7.9 points), suggesting that additional support for 8th graders — particularly in reading and writing — could help close the gap. Overall, Rutledge Middle School is a rising, academically competitive school and a clear bright spot within Grainger County Schools, though data on free/reduced lunch eligibility and student-teacher ratio is not available to provide additional context on the school's performance.
Thank you for your feedback!