Ware County Middle School, Waycross GA

Original Research by School Decision on Ware County Middle School

Ware County Middle School serves sixth through eighth grade students in Waycross, a small Southeast Georgia city. The school is housed on its current campus, with a new building under construction expected to open for the start of school in 2026, funded by a voter-approved sales tax that does not raise the property tax millage rate.

The student body numbers around 730 students, split fairly evenly across the three middle grades. A substantial majority qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The racial composition is diverse: roughly half white students, with a significant black student population, and meaningful shares of Hispanic and multiracial students. The school does not report separate data on English learners or students in special education; data on those populations was not available.

State testing results show modest proficiency across subjects. In math, students show lower performance in sixth and seventh grades and improve somewhat by eighth grade, though overall proficiency remains in the low range. In English language arts, proficiency clusters around the low-to-mid range across all three grades, with eighth grade slightly higher. Science and social studies are assessed in eighth grade only; science proficiency sits in the low-to-mid range, while social studies performance is somewhat higher, approaching half of students meeting proficiency. These results suggest the school faces challenges in foundational skills, particularly in mathematics, with some relative strength in social studies and modest improvement as students move through eighth grade in some subjects.

Waycross itself is anchored by a historic downtown district, walkable and recognized as a Main Street City, with restored railroad-era buildings and civic anchors including the library, City Hall, and the C.C. McCray City Auditorium. The area is experiencing economic development momentum: the ADMARES manufacturing facility is under construction and expected to begin production by late 2025 with over a thousand jobs. Housing is tight. New residential projects including apartment complexes near downtown and workforce-housing developments are responding to a documented shortage, and the Georgia Conservancy is undertaking a housing study for the area in response to projected growth.

Ware County Schools has implemented a bell-to-bell electronic device restriction beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, prohibiting cell phones, earbuds, and similar devices during school hours, ahead of a state mandate. The district is funded partly through an Education Special Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters, which funds the new middle school and other capital projects without raising the property millage rate, though the school board did approve a property tax increase in 2024 above rollback. These are structural decisions that affect both school conditions and family finances in the area.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 25%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 30% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 4 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 33% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 30% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 33% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Science

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 35% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Social studies

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 38% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median

This schoolWare County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.