The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in Math. The lowest is 21% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Kemper County Middle School
Kemper County Middle School sits in DeKalb, a small rural town that serves as the county seat of Kemper County. The town centers on its courthouse and civic buildings along Bell Street, with Highway 39 running through the middle and Highway 16 crossing the north side. DeKalb is a car-dependent place where commercial and civic activity clusters along the highway corridors. The town has been losing population over recent census cycles, and no major housing developments or growth projects surfaced in publicly reported sources. Home values here sit well below the state and national benchmarks, which points to an affordable housing market for families looking to settle, though the broader economic context is one of a quiet, declining rural community rather than a growing one. A regional public library branch and town hall anchor civic life, and East Mississippi Community College serves the county for postsecondary access, though its main campus is outside DeKalb.
The school itself serves grades six through eight with a small enrollment. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is almost entirely Black or African American, with a handful of students identifying as white or two or more races. The school is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. IEP and English-learner data were not available, so a parent looking for information about special education or language-learner services would want to ask the school directly.
State assessment results from the most recent year tell a mixed and, in several grade levels, a concerning story. In math, seventh graders stand out as the strongest group, with proficiency landing at about half the tested students. Sixth-grade math proficiency is much lower, and eighth-grade math is lower still. English language arts follows a similar but weaker pattern. Sixth-grade ELA proficiency is moderate, seventh grade dips, and eighth grade drops sharply to a very low level. Eighth-grade science proficiency mirrors the eighth-grade math result. Across the board, proficiency tends to fall as students move from sixth to eighth grade, with the steepest decline in ELA. These results suggest that a meaningful share of students are not reaching grade-level expectations, particularly by the time they reach eighth grade. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, especially asking about what supports and 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 these figures whether performance is improving or declining over time. Participation rates were also missing from the data set, though the tested counts suggest most enrolled students did sit for the assessments.
The broader district context includes a recent consolidation. Kemper County School District opened a new Kemper County Elementary School in DeKalb in spring 2024, bringing together several former elementary schools under one roof. That reorganization changed attendance zones across the county and represents the most visible recent change for families. For the middle school, no specific program offerings, course-access details, staffing figures, discipline data, or attendance information were available in the data provided. These gaps mean the picture here is incomplete on several fronts that parents often care about, from extracurriculars and advanced coursework to school climate and teacher experience.
What is clear is that Kemper County Middle School is a small, rural, high-poverty middle school serving a close-knit community in a town with limited economic activity and affordable housing. Its academic results show some bright spots in the middle grades but real challenges in proficiency, especially at the eighth-grade level. Families considering this school would benefit from direct conversations with school leadership about academic support, available programs, and the transition into and out of the middle grades.
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