Summary:
ZIP code 23837 contains exactly one middle school, Southampton Middle, serving grades 6 through 8 in Courtland, Virginia, as part of Southampton County Public Schools.
Southampton Middle serves 497 students in a high-poverty community, with nearly 92% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school holds a consistent 1-star rating and ranks in the 14th–15th percentile statewide, but that overall ranking masks several notable strengths. Eighth grade English reading proficiency reached 70.31% in 2025–2026, close to the state average of 73.51%, and science proficiency (59.84%) came within about five points of the state. The advanced math track is also a bright spot: in 2024–2025, 93.33% of 8th graders taking Algebra I were proficient, exceeding the state average. Most striking is the turnaround in Civics and Economics, which jumped from 36.6% proficiency in 2024–2025 to 66.67% in 2025–2026, narrowing a 37-point state gap to just 8 points.
The biggest challenge is general math proficiency, which declines as students progress: from 41.72% in 6th grade to 36.22% in 7th grade and just 27.66% in 8th grade in 2025–2026, compared to a state average of 46.86%. Chronic absenteeism sits at 13.5%, below the state rate of 14.8% but above the district’s 8.7%. With a student-teacher ratio of 13.7:1 and per-student spending of $7,783, the school has reasonable structural resources. For families in 23837, Southampton Middle offers a mixed picture: strong reading and advanced math for some students, a rapidly improving civics program, but a pressing need for targeted math intervention in the upper middle grades.
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