SOUTH MIDDLE

SOUTH MIDDLE operates as a moderately sized intermediate school in JOPLIN, Missouri, part of JOPLIN SCHOOLS. Current enrollment sits at 596 students spanning grades 6 through 8. By comparison, Missouri's public schools average about 461 students each, so SOUTH MIDDLE sits 29% above that benchmark.

JOPLIN SCHOOLS runs 15 schools in total, collectively educating 7,873 students. SOUTH MIDDLE is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, SOUTH MIDDLE records that White students make up the majority at 67%; the rest comes out to 12% multiracial, 9% Hispanic, 6% Black, 2% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 81% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, SOUTH MIDDLE logs 42 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 14.2:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.0:1 average. Roughly 57% of students at SOUTH MIDDLE qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

With demographic context factored in, SOUTH MIDDLE tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 50.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 48.8%.

Across the wider county, Newton County reports that median household earnings sit near $66,301, roughly 24% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Across Newton County's 25 public schools (combined enrollment of about 9,567 students), SOUTH MIDDLE is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is STAPLETON ELEM., roughly 1.0 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around SOUTH MIDDLE. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts SOUTH MIDDLE at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 52.5%.

The school occupies a small-town site.

Over the past 7-year window. SOUTH MIDDLE's enrollment has rose 6% since 2018, when it stood at 564 (now 596). The White share of enrollment ticked down from 81% to 67% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio loosened from 12.8:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 today.

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