Summary:
There is one middle school serving grades 6–8 in Manchester City Schools, located in Manchester, Tennessee, and that school is Westwood Middle School.
Westwood Middle School is a school of contrasts. Its greatest strength is advanced mathematics: 90.5% of 8th graders taking Algebra I scored proficient, beating the state average of 88.3%. Attendance is also excellent, with a chronic absenteeism rate of just 8.1% — less than half the state average of 18.3%. The school also performs well in science (46.8% proficient) and social studies (49.8%), both close to state averages and well above district averages. However, core subject proficiency tells a different story. Overall math proficiency is 35.4%, and English Language Arts is the biggest concern at 28.5% proficient, a sharp 12-point gap behind the state and a steep decline from last year’s 33.8%. ELA struggles are consistent across all grades, hovering around 28–29%. In 8th-grade general math, only 25.5% are proficient, though that number is likely skewed because many advanced students take Algebra I instead. The strongest grade is 7th, where science (56.0%) and social studies (57.7%) proficiency are particularly high.
Westwood’s state percentile has slipped over three years, from the 65th to the 51st percentile, even while maintaining a 3-star rating. The school spends $13,015 per student, a substantial figure, yet results in foundational math and literacy lag the state. The good news is that attendance is rock-solid, providing a strong base. Social studies improved by 5.7 points this year, and math ticked up slightly, but the 5.3-point drop in ELA is a red flag. For parents, the priority is clear: Westwood excels at accelerating advanced math students and keeps kids in class, but it needs a renewed focus on reading and grade-level math to reverse its slow decline in statewide ranking.
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