The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Science. The lowest is 29% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Bay Springs Middle Sch
Bay Springs Middle School sits in the town of Bay Springs, the western seat of Jasper County, Mississippi, where State Highways 15 and 18 cross at the center of a community built on yellow pine timber and now sustained by light manufacturing. The town's gazebo with its artesian spring marks the crossroads, and Bayfest brings vendors and live music each summer. Hol-Mac Corporation and Georgia-Pacific anchor the local economy, with Hol-Mac partnering with nearby Jones College on job training. Bay Springs has been experiencing a slow population decline, and no major new housing developments surface in the available sources. The town has no public transit, and no public library was named.
The school serves grades six through eight as part of West Jasper Consolidated Schools. It is a small enrollment school, and its student body is predominantly Black, with small representation from White, multiracial, and Hispanic students. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the broad economic disadvantage in the surrounding community. IEP and English-learner data were not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here. No charter or magnet designation applies.
On state assessments through the MAAP, math results tell a mixed story across grade levels. Sixth-grade math proficiency sits low, while seventh grade shows a marked jump, with well over half of tested students reaching proficiency. Eighth-grade math falls between those two points, with roughly half proficient. ELA results are uniformly modest across all three grades, with proficiency remaining below the math levels at every grade band. Eighth-grade science proficiency lands at about the midpoint of the school's math range. Participation rates were not reported for any subject or grade. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time.
The pattern suggests a school where math instruction gains traction as students move through the middle grades, while literacy remains a softer area across the board. A parent whose child reads well below grade level may want to look into what targeted reading support the school provides, since the ELA numbers indicate this is a building-wide challenge rather than an isolated one. The absence of course-access data means specific program offerings, advanced coursework, or intervention structures cannot be described from what was provided. Staffing, attendance, and discipline data were also absent, so the school's climate and resource picture is incomplete from this source alone.
Because Bay Springs Middle does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. That gap reflects the grade band, not a missing result. Civil-rights data was not available for this school. A neighbor comparison was not provided, so the school cannot be positioned against nearby middle schools from this dataset alone. The district brief for West Jasper Consolidated Schools did not surface any parent-relevant changes such as bond issues, curriculum shifts, or facility decisions that clear a lasting-impact bar.
Housing in the Bay Springs zip code is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks, with the typical home value sitting well below the Mississippi state figure and far below the national one. Year-over-year home values have declined, which aligns with the town's broader population trend. Rental data was not available. The price-to-income ratio sits below the national midpoint, suggesting that for families with steady employment, ownership costs may be manageable, though the declining home values reflect a market with limited growth pressure.
Bay Springs Middle is a small, high-poverty middle school in a rural crossroads town where manufacturing and timber processing keep the local economy going. Math results build meaningfully from sixth to seventh grade, while reading proficiency stays low throughout. Families considering this school would benefit from asking directly about literacy interventions, course offerings, and support services, since the publicly available data does not extend into those areas.
See more original research from School Decision →