Harris Middle School

Harris Middle School in Shelbyville, Tennessee, serves 977 students in grades 6–8 and is part of Bedford County Schools, a district ranked in the 38th percentile statewide. The school itself, however, ranks 530th out of 594 Tennessee middle schools—in the 11th percentile with a 1-star rating for 2025–2026. Proficiency rates are far below state and district averages in every subject: just 14.5% of students are proficient in math, 14.9% in English language arts, 21.3% in science, and 21.7% in social studies. That's a gap of roughly 20–30 percentage points compared to Tennessee's state averages, and subgroup rankings fall in the bottom single digits or low teens across nearly every student group.

Harris is the lowest-performing school among all nearby middle schools. Cascade Middle School, in the same district, ranks in the 82nd percentile with 59% math proficiency—more than four times Harris's rate. Even West Middle School in Tullahoma, the weakest comparison school, more than doubles Harris's math and ELA rates. Chronic absenteeism is also an ongoing concern at 22.5%, above district and state averages. But absenteeism doesn't fully explain the gap: Community Middle School, also in Bedford County, has the same 22.5% absenteeism rate yet posts proficiency rates roughly 2.5 to 3 times higher.

Students also tend to fall further behind as they progress through Harris. Math proficiency drops from 17.1% in 6th grade to 11.1% in 8th grade, and ELA drops from 19.6% to 10.1%. There are a few bright spots: Algebra I proficiency reached 50%, well above the state average, and 7th grade social studies hit 32.2%. The school spends about $10,844 per student, below most nearby schools, and showed modest improvement in 2025–2026 compared to a very weak prior year—though scores remain below the school's own performance from two years earlier.