The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Science. The lowest is 20% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Charleston Middle School
Charleston Middle School sits on Oak Grove Road in Charleston, a small Delta town that serves as one of two county seats for Tallahatchie County. The town calls itself the "Gateway to the Delta," and its civic life centers on a brick courthouse, a municipal building, churches, and the schools operated by the East Tallahatchie Consolidated School District. Charleston's economy runs largely on health care and social assistance, educational services, and manufacturing, with no single dominant employer surfacing in publicly reported sources. The town has been losing population over recent census cycles, and its small footprint means distances within town are short, though the infrastructure along Mississippi Highways 32 and 35 is auto-oriented. No walkability scores, parks, libraries, or transit systems were identified in publicly reported sources.
Charleston Middle School serves grades five through eight and is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. Its enrollment is modest for a middle school serving four grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black, with small shares of white students and students of two or more races. Every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the broader economic conditions of the area. The school does not report individualized education program counts or English learner figures, so those details are absent from the available data.
On Mississippi's MAAP assessments for the most recent school year, math proficiency varies across the grade levels in a pattern worth noticing. Fifth grade posts the lowest math proficiency among the tested grades, sixth grade dips further, and then seventh and eighth grade each rise to the strongest math results in the building. ELA tells a different story. Fifth grade shows the highest ELA proficiency, and from there the numbers decline through sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, with seventh grade landing at the lowest point. Science results, tested only in fifth and eighth grade, are the school's relative bright spot, with fifth grade showing the strongest proficiency of any subject and grade combination at Charleston Middle, and eighth grade science also outpacing most math and ELA results.
A parent reading these results would see a school where science outcomes outpace reading and math, where math strengthens as students move up through the grades, and where ELA weakens over that same progression. The seventh grade ELA result is the lowest single figure across all tested subjects and grades. These are sobering proficiency levels across the board, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking how instruction in reading and writing is structured in the upper grades and what interventions are in place for students who are not yet proficient.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from the provided data whether these results represent an improvement, a decline, or a holding pattern. Participation rates were also missing from the dataset. The school does not report graduation rate because it is a middle school, and that metric does not apply to this grade band.
The housing market around Charleston Middle School is among the most affordable in the state. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit well below the state benchmark and far below the national figure, and the year-over-year trend shows a modest decline rather than appreciation. For a family considering a move to the area, this means low barriers to homeownership but also a market that is not gaining value. The price-to-income ratio is low by national standards, and estimated monthly mortgage costs are modest. Rental data was not available for this location.
We looked for the district's recent parent-relevant changes, such as curriculum shifts, referendums, or facility investments, and found little in publicly reported sources, so we left it out rather than guess. Course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance data were also not available for this school.
Charleston Middle School is a small, community-anchored middle school in a declining but historically rooted Delta town, serving a student population that faces concentrated economic disadvantage. Its science results are its strongest academic signal, its math results build across the grade levels, and its ELA results are the area of clearest concern. Families evaluating this school should ask direct questions about reading instruction in the upper grades and about what academic supports are available for students working below proficiency.
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