The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Smiths Station Junior High School
Smiths Station Junior High School serves the seventh and eighth grades in the Lee County School District, drawing its roughly nine hundred students from a community that functions primarily as a bedroom suburb of Columbus, Georgia, and Phenix City, Alabama. The built environment is car-dependent, and civic life centers on a government campus that includes city hall and a local history museum, with the high school acting as a community anchor rather than a downtown fixture. Smiths Station itself is Alabama’s second newest city, incorporated in the recent past, and is still recovering from a major tornado that tore through the area a few years ago. The district is seeing enrollment growth, especially in the Smiths Station area near Fort Moore, and a committee has been formed to study whether to expand Smiths Station High School or build a new facility, a decision that could affect the junior high’s feeder pattern and potentially property taxes.
The student body is majority white, with a substantial share of Black students and a smaller Hispanic population. Slightly more than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a significant proportion of families with lower household incomes. Data on special education and English learner enrollment were not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
On state assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year, the school’s results present a mixed picture. In English language arts, roughly three-fifths of students across the two grades met the proficiency standard, a rate that sits as a relative strength for this school. Science proficiency, tested only in eighth grade, came in at a level of just under two-fifths, a middling result. Math proficiency was the most challenging area, with fewer than one in four students scoring proficient in seventh grade and just over that mark in eighth grade. When compared against other districts in Lee County, the school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades falls in the bottom quartile. A parent considering this school should be aware that while a majority of students are reading on grade level, math achievement is a clear soft spot and warrants a conversation with the school about what interventions and supports are in place.
Because the school serves only seventh and eighth graders, there is no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing were included in the available information, so a parent may want to inquire about those areas as well. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and Title I status was not specified.
Housing in the Smiths Station area is priced above the state average but below the national median, with home values having grown modestly in the past year. The broader economic context shows a national unemployment rate that is low and a 30-year fixed mortgage rate that has fluctuated but remains elevated from a few years ago. For a family moving to this part of eastern Alabama, the junior high sits in a growing corridor where the district is actively planning for more capacity, a sign that the area may continue to attract new residents. The school itself is a straightforward middle school, and the main academic takeaway is that literacy is a relative strong point while math performance lags noticeably, a reality that any enrolling family would want to explore further with the school’s administration.
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