Summary
Stewart County Middle School serves 439 students in grades 6–8 in Dover, Tennessee, a small riverside community, and earns a 4-star rating from the state, placing it in the 70th percentile of middle schools statewide. The school is part of Stewart County Schools, a highly regarded district that ranks 40th out of 141 in Tennessee. Academically, Stewart County Middle School beats the state average in every core subject: 46.1% of students are proficient in math (state: 43.0%), 43.4% in English language arts (state: 40.6%), 49.0% in science (state: 46.9%), and 51.8% in social studies (state: 51.4%).
The contrast with the nearest comparable school, Houston County Middle School, about 13 miles away in Erin, is striking. Stewart County outperforms Houston County in every subject by wide margins — 46.1% versus 17.6% in math, 43.4% versus 23.1% in ELA, 49.0% versus 32.9% in science, and 51.8% versus 38.0% in social studies. Stewart County also offers meaningful access to advanced coursework: 72% of its 8th graders taking Algebra I scored proficient, while Houston County reports no Algebra I results at all. Notably, Stewart County achieves these stronger outcomes while spending about $1,500 less per student ($11,461 versus $12,967).
The school has also recovered impressively from the pandemic. Chronic absenteeism has fallen from a high of 33.3% in 2021–2022 to just 14.3% in 2024–2025, now below the state rate of 18.3%, and both math and ELA proficiency have climbed over the same period. Stewart County is particularly effective with low-income students, whose performance ranks in the 80th percentile statewide. There are a few areas to watch: 8th-grade math (36.4% proficient) trails the state average, female students' results have lagged slightly behind males, and special education outcomes have bounced around significantly from year to year. Overall, this is a strong, improving school that delivers excellent results for its students.
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