The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 15% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cartersville Middle School
Cartersville Middle School serves the sixth through eighth grades in a district that is itself small but growing quickly within a city undergoing significant industrial and residential expansion. The school has an enrollment of roughly a thousand students, distributed fairly evenly across its three grade levels. A majority of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment is racially and ethnically mixed, with substantial populations of White, Hispanic, and Black students, plus smaller Asian and multiracial communities.
The academic picture shows proficiency rates that cluster around the middle range on Georgia's end-of-grade assessments. In math, students across grades six through eight hover just under or just at the midpoint of proficiency, with eighth grade performing slightly ahead of the younger grades. English language arts proficiency is similar in sixth and seventh grades but drops noticeably in eighth grade. Science presents a sharper challenge, with only a small minority of eighth-graders meeting proficiency on the 2025 assessment. Social studies proficiency on eighth-grade assessments sits below the midpoint as well. Across its tested subjects, Cartersville Middle ranks above the midpoint among the two school districts in Bartow County, though the overall performance suggests that roughly half of students or fewer are meeting grade-level standards in most areas.
The school is located in Cartersville, a mixed-use small city where a historic downtown core of shops, restaurants, and performing-arts venues sits alongside heavy manufacturing employment and residential neighborhoods. The area has seen substantial recent growth: multiple new residential subdivisions are under construction, major manufacturing expansions are underway (including a large Anheuser-Busch brewing equipment upgrade and a new solar-panel factory), and the district itself has just completed a new primary school facility. The city sits about 44 miles north of Atlanta on Interstate 75, making it accessible both to major metropolitan services and to a more modest, small-town character.
Housing in the area is moderately priced relative to national standards, and rental costs remain below homeownership costs when considered as a share of household income. The area's economic base is stable, anchored by manufacturing and logistics employers, though like many Georgia communities it is also drawing suburban growth pressures from Atlanta's expansion northward.
The Cartersville City School District made one significant structural decision in early 2025: it voted to opt out of Georgia's statewide homestead exemption that would have capped annual increases in taxable home value. This decision means families in the district will face higher property-tax exposure than they would have under the exemption, and the district flagged that this could lead to larger and more frequent millage-rate increases over time. For parents considering homes in the area, this is a permanent feature of the district's tax environment worth understanding alongside housing prices.
A parent evaluating this school should expect a middle-grades setting with mixed academic results, strongest in math, softest in science, and with performance that reflects a student body facing economic and academic challenges. The school sits in a community with real momentum: new housing, industrial investment, and a freshly rebuilt primary school signal district confidence and growth. The trade-off is that rapid growth and property-tax decisions shape both the immediate classroom environment and the longer-term fiscal climate families will live in.
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