Middle Schools in Joplin Schools

The Joplin Schools district in Missouri is home to three middle schools: East Middle, South Middle, and North Middle. Based on the available data, South Middle appears to be the standout school, consistently outperforming the other two in areas such as statewide rankings, test scores, and student demographics.

South Middle has maintained a higher statewide ranking, placing 192nd out of 451 Missouri middle schools in the 2023-2024 school year, compared to 238th for East Middle and 302nd for North Middle. Additionally, South Middle outperforms the district and state averages in most subject areas, particularly in Mathematics, where 6th-grade students achieved a 51.1% proficiency rate, surpassing the district's 41.8% and the state's 44.4%. The school also has a lower percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a relatively more advantaged student population.

While the three middle schools in the Joplin Schools district share some common challenges, such as high chronic absenteeism rates, they exhibit varying levels of academic performance and resource allocation. North Middle, for instance, has the highest spending per student at $10,696, while East Middle has the lowest at $8,774. These disparities suggest the need for a closer examination of the factors contributing to the observed differences in school performance and student outcomes.