Middle Schools in Haywood County Schools

Middle Schools in Haywood County Schools, Tennessee, consist of two schools — Sunny Hill Intermediate School (grades 5–6, enrollment 349) and Haywood Middle School (grades 7–8, enrollment 345) — operating in a district ranked 140th out of 141 Tennessee districts, placing it in the 1st percentile with a 0-star rating. Both schools face significant academic challenges, with proficiency rates far below state averages across every subject, but they also show notable differences in performance and trajectory.

Academically, Sunny Hill Intermediate is the stronger school, outperforming Haywood Middle in most subjects in 2025–2026: math (15.3% vs. 11.1%), ELA (24.3% vs. 15.0%), and social studies (25.9% vs. 24.4%), while science is essentially tied (21.4% vs. 21.3%). Sunny Hill also has lower chronic absenteeism (10.7% vs. 13.5%). However, Haywood Middle shows the most dramatic year-over-year improvement, jumping from 13.0% to 18.0% average proficiency across all four subjects, with especially strong gains in science (+6.0 points), ELA (+5.5 points), and social studies (+5.3 points). Sunny Hill’s gains were smaller, moving from 19.9% to 21.7% average proficiency.

Notably, chronic absenteeism at both schools is below the district average (18.1%) and state average (18.3%), despite very low achievement — meaning attendance alone does not explain the academic struggles. Math is the weakest subject at both schools, and a clear grade-level decline appears at Sunny Hill, where 5th graders outperform 6th graders in every subject. The single brightest spot is Haywood Middle’s 7th-grade social studies (30.0% proficiency), though still far below the state’s 56.0%. Every subject at both schools improved from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, except flat math at Sunny Hill, indicating a positive trajectory even within a very low-performing district. For parents, the key takeaway is that both schools face urgent needs in math and ELA, but they are slowly improving, with Sunny Hill currently ahead and Haywood Middle showing the most momentum.