The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in Science. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Jefferson County Middle School
Jefferson County Middle School sits along Highway 33 in Fayette, the county seat of Jefferson County, Mississippi. It serves grades five through eight as part of the Jefferson County School District. The school is not a charter or magnet school. Its enrollment is modest for a four-grade middle school, with students spread fairly evenly across the four grade levels.
The student body is almost entirely African American, and every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. This is a school serving a community where poverty is pervasive and where nearly all families share the same racial and cultural background. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here. A parent wanting to understand special-education services or language supports would need to ask the school directly.
On the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program, the most recent results show a school where proficiency is low across subjects and grades, with some variation worth noting. In math, roughly a quarter of fifth graders reached proficiency, and that share declined steadily through eighth grade, where fewer than one in five tested students were proficient. The pattern in English language arts was more uneven. Fifth grade had the strongest ELA showing, with close to a third of students proficient. That dropped sharply in sixth grade, fell further in seventh, and then rebounded somewhat in eighth. Science was tested only in fifth and eighth grades, and here the school showed its strongest results, with proficiency higher in eighth grade than in fifth. Still, across most subjects and grades, the majority of students are not meeting the state's proficiency bar.
Because this school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The state does not test every grade in every subject, which explains why science results appear only for fifth and eighth graders. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement or decline from prior years. Participation rates were also missing from the data.
Fayette is a small, rural town that serves as the governmental center for Jefferson County. The town covers only a few square miles and is overwhelmingly residential. It has experienced sustained population decline over several decades, and publicly reported estimates suggest that decline is continuing. The housing market in the school's zip code reflects this context. Home values sit far below both the Mississippi and national benchmarks, and recent data shows a sharp year-over-year decline in those already low values. Relative to income, housing is quite affordable by national standards, but the downward trajectory in value points to a community where demand for housing is weak and economic growth is limited.
The town has a place in civil rights history. Fayette elected Charles Evers as mayor in the late 1960s, making him the first African American mayor in post-Reconstruction Mississippi. City Hall sits on a street named for his brother, Medgar Evers. Beyond county government and the school district, search results did not identify major employers in the area, and no information on parks, libraries, or transit was available.
No information was available on the school's course offerings, extracurricular programs, staffing levels, discipline practices, or attendance patterns. The Jefferson County School District brief did not surface any recent policy changes, curriculum reforms, or budget actions that would be relevant to families.
For a parent evaluating this school, the academic data shows a place where most students are struggling to reach proficiency, particularly in math and in the middle ELA grades. The strongest signal comes from eighth-grade science, where a larger share of students met the standard. The community around the school is small, rural, and economically pressed, with a housing market that reflects long-term population loss. A family considering this school would want to ask directly about what instructional supports and interventions are in place for students working below grade level, and what the pathway looks like as students move from here into the district's high school.
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