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What's one thing Richards Middle School gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
799
Middle
DISTRICT 530 · STATE 763
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MUSCOGEE COUNTY·NCES 130387001400
Richards Middle School
2892 Edgewood Rd, Columbus, GA 31906 · (706) 569-3697 · Muscogee County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL799 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
46 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.3:1 · STATE 14.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
85%
681 students
DISTRICT 89% · STATE 74%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 282 | 35% |
| Grade 7 | 266 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 251 | 31% |
Student demographics
68%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 61% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
Georgia Milestones 2024-25 . % Proficient or DistinguishedEnglish Language Arts
54.0%
GA avg 40.1% . +5.3pp since 2021
Math
49.9%
GA avg 44.6% . +6.1pp since 2021
What this means: On the Georgia Milestones, Georgia's statewide test, about 54 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 50 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Georgia schools, those numbers are about 40 and 45. Reading and writing scores are up about 5 points since 2021, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Georgia Milestones results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 54.0% | 49.9% |
| 2023-24 | 53.1% | 45.5% |
| 2022-23 | 48.7% | 41.2% |
| 2021-22 | 48.6% | 43.8% |
% Proficient or Distinguished, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Georgia Milestones. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of GA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
51.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.3%
based on GA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+18.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 33% typical for Georgia schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 18 points, placing it in Georgia's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Richards Middle School
Richards Middle School's state test result (51.6% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richards Middle School this school | 799 | 85.2% | 51.6% |
| Thomson Middle School Centerville | 734 | 91.1% | 45.2% |
| Clarke Middle School Athens | 718 | 83.8% | 38.1% |
| Thomson-McDuffie Middle School Thomson | 667 | 90.1% | 27.4% |
| Waycross Middle School Waycross | 606 | 90.8% | 36.0% |
| William James Middle School Statesboro | 536 | 86.4% | 38.9% |
Matched among Georgia middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Richards Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Georgia | In Muscogee County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 51.6% | #102 of 470 | #1 of 12 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 49.9% | #147 of 474 ▲ 14 | #2 of 12 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 54.0% | #73 of 474 ▲ 16 | #1 of 12 no change |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +5.7pp | #181 of 465 | #4 of 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 799 | #200 of 487 | #1 of 12 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.2:1 | #449 of 471 | #12 of 12 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 67.5% | #62 of 471 | #5 of 12 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 85.2% | #225 of 479 | #9 of 12 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +14.5% | #55 of 144 | N/A |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
799
-36 (-4%) vs 2020
-1% since 1990-91, when it was 811
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
was 17.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 799 | 46.4 | 17.2:1 | 85% (681) |
| 2023-24 | 809 | 47.5 | 17.0:1 | 80% (650) |
| 2022-23 | 819 | 46.5 | 17.6:1 | 97% (791) |
| 2020-21 | 835 | 47 | 17.8:1 | 97% (807) |
| 2017-18 | 698 | 43.5 | 16.1:1 | 94% (659) |
| 2015-16 | 701 | 41 | 17.1:1 | 73% (512) |
| 2010-11 | 781 | 53 | 14.7:1 | 64% (498) |
| 2000-01 | 645 | 40 | 16.1:1 | 47% (304) |
| 1990-91 | 811 | 44 | 18.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Richards Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 14% (698 to 799); teachers up 7% (43.5 to 46.4).
About Richards Middle School
Richards Middle School is classified as a middle school. It is located in Columbus, Georgia. Enrollment is 799 students in 2024-25, and the school serves grades 6 through 8.
Muscogee County is responsible for 54 schools, Richards Middle School included, with 30,091 students in all.
Richards Middle School has no majority group; Black students are the largest, at 49%. The rest of enrollment is 25% White, 10% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 7% Asian. The Black share in Muscogee County as a whole is similar, at about 47%. The school's diversity index is 68%, meaning two students picked at random have a 68% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The count of teachers at Richards Middle School is 46.4 full-time equivalents, for a ratio of 17.2:1. That is higher than the 14.1:1 average for middle schools in Georgia. The school counts 681 students as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, or 85%. That tracks the 86% average for public schools in Muscogee County.
Schools in Georgia with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to post an average proficiency rate on state tests near 33.3%. Richards Middle School posts 51.6%, 18.3 points above that, which places it in the top 10% statewide on BeatsExpectations.
In Muscogee County (population about 203,711), the median household income is $58,073, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and roughly 15% of residents are in poverty. Richards Middle School is one of 57 public schools in the county.
The closest public school to Richards Middle School is Clubview Elementary School, less than a tenth of a mile away. Richards Middle School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. Among 9 nearby schools that report test results, Richards Middle School ranks 3rd on proficiency.
NCES describes the area around Richards Middle School as City: Mid-size, meaning inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
2024-25 enrollment was 799, a 4% decrease from 835 in 2020-21.
Topics for discussion here include science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Muscogee County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
203,711
Census ACS
Median income
$58,073
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
31%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
15%
Below federal line
Schools in county
57
30,110 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Muscogee County
- Northside High SchoolHigh · 1,405 students
- Shaw High SchoolHigh · 1,162 students
- Columbus High SchoolHigh · 1,161 students
- Hardaway High SchoolHigh · 1,067 students
- Jordan Vocational High SchoolHigh · 1,040 students
- Spencer High SchoolHigh · 1,016 students
Other schools in Columbus
- Northside High SchoolHigh · 1,405 students
- Shaw High SchoolHigh · 1,162 students
- Columbus High SchoolHigh · 1,161 students
- Hardaway High SchoolHigh · 1,067 students
- Jordan Vocational High SchoolHigh · 1,040 students
- Spencer High SchoolHigh · 1,016 students
Other Richards Middle schools
2 other US public schools in 2 states are named Richards Middle. Richards Middle School is the 2nd largest of the 3.
- Richards Middle SchoolLawrenceville, GA · 1,974 students
- Richards Middle SchoolFRASER, MI · 661 students
Nearby schools
- Clubview Elementary School0.1 mi · 566
- Hardaway High School0.4 mi · 1,067
- Rainey McCullers School of the Arts1.2 mi · 420
- Rigdon Road Elementary School1.3 mi · 437
- Columbus High School1.3 mi · 1,161
- Johnson Elementary School1.3 mi · 336
Frequently asked questions
About Richards Middle SchoolHow many students attend Richards Middle School?
Richards Middle School enrolls approximately 799 students in grades 06-08.
Is Richards Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Richards Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Richards Middle School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Richards Middle School is approximately 17.2:1 (46 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Richards Middle School?
At Richards Middle School, the student body is approximately 25% White, 10% Hispanic, 49% Black, 7% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Is Richards Middle School public or private?
Richards Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Muscogee County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.