Dacula Middle School

137 Dacula Road

School District

Gwinnett County
Grade

6-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:18
Type

public

School Map for Gwinnett County School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 31, 2025

I have pulled 4 children out of Dacula Middle due to bullying. I tried for over a year to get a child an IEP. I finally put the child into a homeschool program and counseling. The counselor, Ms. Hayes is incredible and worked with us to try and improve the situation. I would not recommend this school for any child with mental health issues. It is not a safe environment for them.
Submitted by other on December 23, 2024

I do not recommend this school for anyone's kids it is horrible.
Submitted by parent on October 29, 2024

This school is over-enrolled and understaffed. The teaching staff is a mix of those who are engaged and committed to student success and those who are understandably burned out. My daughter attended 6th grade here, and some of her experiences were outstanding—these classes truly fostered her love of learning and encouraged her to explore new subjects and ideas that I believe will carry her through high school and college.However, the behavior of some students, coupled with the recent changes in policies under Gwinnett’s new superintendent, Dr. Calvin, has placed a significant strain on the school. These policies, which focus on handling disruptive students, have led to many excellent teachers leaving the district, resulting in staffing issues across Gwinnett County schools. As someone who attended Gwinnett schools myself and now has two children in the system, it’s clear that the district’s former standard of excellence has diminished. The approach to inclusion seems to prioritize avoiding labels for disruptive students, but it’s costing engaged students the quality education they deserve.This situation ultimately led me to sell my home in Gwinnett and move to Forsyth County, where schools are more focused on supporting academic excellence. Forsyth, like Oconee and Cobb, has attracted many of the best teachers from Gwinnett, offering an environment where teachers can teach effectively and administrators handle disruptions appropriately. Leaving Gwinnett was difficult, but if you have the means and want the best possible education for your children, consider seeking alternatives that support individual academic aspirations over a diluted standard of inclusion.
Submitted by parent on August 30, 2024

This school lacks leadership they always want to push stuff under the rug. No one at this school knows how to answer nor deal with parents on a timely matter. They just want to pass the issue to each other and do nothing about the issues, they just want to wait till the issues get beyond there control.
Submitted by student on June 13, 2024

As a student I can say I didn’t learn much here. There was fights a lot of the times as well. One of teachers even went as far to cuss us out and one even quit cause she was bullied by the students. There was also a gun threat. Going to school will make you feel anything but safe and your child will most likely not learn much. Kids were always so rude to others and teachers. The staff doesn’t do anything about it. Please send your kid anywhere but here.
Submitted by other on April 04, 2024

This school is not safe for children, there’s bullying and the school does nothing to punish these people. It’s not safe! They are waiting for someone to get hurt before doing the right thing.
Submitted by parent on February 13, 2024

Stay away from that school they will traumatize your kids. the worst school in Gwinnett county.
Submitted by parent on October 04, 2023

This school has terrible staff from management to front desk staff. I am never greeted with respect from the front desk staff. One lady went as far as throwing my visitor pass on counter at me. She also yelled at me to talk into the speaker instead of saying “good morning how are you”. The assistant principal disrespected my mother and teaching and subs are constantly disrespecting the students instead of teaching them.
Submitted by other on April 24, 2023

I was a student here for 3 years, on gifted team all three years. The first 2 years were great, the third was awful. I had a teacher that cursed at me, and multiple gun threats. I was bullied, and the teachers laughed with the people who bullied me. I spent every day crying in the bathroom during lunch. Please, please, pick a different MS. The HS is ok, but the MS is torture.
Submitted by student on April 01, 2023

As a person or child who has been through the stuff at this school, this school is terrible. There are so many problems in general.First of all, the safety. As a fellow student of this school, I do not feel safe here at all. People have been assaulting me; and many other things and the Admins do nothing about it. Also the fighting is insane, these people who fight over stupid reasons get suspended for 2 days and come back like nothing happened. Also some kid tried to poison a teacher and because of that I do not feel safeSecond of all, the teachers. The teachers I currently have are okay, but they aren’t the best. My current Science teacher yells at us all the time and can’t handle the kids anymore. They don’t like us. My math teacher acts nice around the admins but gets frustrated when we don’t get something right and yells. The other teachers are okay, but this one sub. This sub hates children. They were our sub for 2 months and those were the worst 2 months. She’s so strict, she wouldn’t let us do the normal stuff our teacher does. Literally everyone hates her. Then, the other stuff that has happened. The 3 times on the news this year would’ve let August me to shock. Also kids doing drugs, having children, smoking, vaping, etc is crazy. I would not recommend this school at all, this school isn’t safe.
Submitted by parent on February 06, 2023

This school does not care about how u feel and aren’t understanding of ur situation.you cant tell them anything and forced to deal with it.some teachers only teach for the pay check.my teacher repeated made it clear that some things weren’t in her pay check and i feel like to be a great students u have to be willing to do more with ur students then just what the school acquires them to do same goes for students.
Submitted by parent on January 18, 2023

Love this school. Both of my kids attended for all three years, one was in the STEM program. Both excelled in all classes, achieved high test scores, and experienced no major bullying other than the typical bickering back and forth between middle school girls. This school is not as bad as the other reviews claim. I’ve seen kids of my friends get heavily bullied at schools with 9/10 and 10/10 ratings. It’s simply the way things are for budding teenagers with hormones and sudden needs to be popular and prove themselves.
Submitted by parent on July 08, 2022

My son got a light bulb thrown at his head
Submitted by parent on April 21, 2022

Vice Principal and teachers have lost control of the school. Daily fights and hysterical screaming students on the floor in the hallway are everyday occurrences the latter of which I have witnessed in person. My child has reported seeing a girl & classmate pinned down and beaten by fellow students. Similarly, reported another friend being bullied physically by peers on multiple occasions. This is called felony assault by any standard.School has instituted a policy of suspension should attempts to record such beating citing social media bullying when in reality they are covering their own incompetence and culpability should the police become involved. Vice Principal tries to institute fear by presiding over lunch and classroom as looming threat. My child has reported seeing blood in the bathroom on multiple occasions.My child has reported teachers are regularly taking their frustrations out on students in hopes of establishing some authority. Substitutes are all too often an occurrence because teachers have resigned themselves from their responsibilities.Tutoring is really study hall with no teacher involvement.Gwinnett County has had a plethora of COVID funds coming in yet the facilities are not being kept up leaving 1 of 5 functional sinks in one bathroom. Where are these funds going if not toward the upkeep of school and teachers with intervention & crisis management experience?Clean sweep of staff and overhaul of facilities is strongly needed with oversight by Georgia Department of Education with an eye toward investigation of current staff for creating a hostile unsafe environment for its students.
Submitted by parent on March 01, 2022

I have two sons that went to DMS in the past. Prior to the administrator changes the teachers, principal and V.P had genuine interest in their students. Currently the vice principal for 6th grade is very vindictive. The administrator's take out their anger on the child(ren) when upset with the parents. One other parent commented on this issue and I couldn't agree more. The leadership at this school are not forthcoming but indulge in labeling and stigmatizing student(s) who try to do the right thing. The school leadership coerced student(s) to admit to things that will impact them negatively. I will not recommend this school with same administrator's to any parents.
Submitted by parent on February 11, 2022

Constant fighting, students bullying others on appearances and race, and poor leadership on staff. It can be very difficult talking to the front office and staff as they tend to sound unwelcoming the majority of the time. I called several times to receive some documents from my daughters but they never called back or even help me with my questions. There's a TLC program where students must be tutored in order to raise or maintain a passable grade. It is sad to say that there are too many students there due to poor teaching. And some end up going to summer school because the TLC program wasn't as efficient as it leads. My daughter is Asian-American and got bullied here at this school which came to the point where we have to transfer her to another school. This school lost its prime.
Submitted by parent on June 17, 2018

Terrible, the principles do nothing to address problems or help children with learning disabilities.
Submitted by parent on April 26, 2018

I do not like this school, the administrators and a lot of the teachers because the way my child has been treated. The emotional problems my child are having today started behind the four walls of Gwinnett County Institutions! And they have the nerves to complain about giving teachers more money. I will rate this school a big fat 0!
Submitted by parent on March 27, 2018

Dacula middle students have seen great improvement in overall academics, test scores, etc.
Submitted by parent on March 16, 2016

This school is the worst school in the history of schools. Every student wants to cool and focuses more on popularity than education. From my experience i've watched my own kids coming out of elementary school with that mindset to learn and to work harder to be the best. but when dacula middle came they were the complete opposite. I was very disappointed in this school and how it was ran. everyday i keep hearing about fights and it gets me really scared. And the punishment of those students is to lazy. The punishment isn't bad. Each year this school gets worse and worse with the discipline. These students need a lot of help. This school is turning into more of the g.i.v.e. center than an actual school. Or even worse it is turning into jail. Kids get bullied. Fights everywhere. I just feel like making a complaint to the county to shut this school down. I get worried that my kids are going to end up in a fight and they'll end up in a hospital, or worse they will be dead. At dacula middle school, there is no such thing as talking a problem out peacefully. Its always you agree with me or we fight, you stay off my man or we fight. It is always you do something or fight. and the worse part is most of the student there now are already smoking and doing drugs, and having sex. These are middle school kids and they're already ruining their lives now and he teachers are doing nothing about it. If the don't know and they're reading this, now they know and i want to tell you i want you to do something about it. I don't want any child to go through something like this. my children don't feel safe and I don't feel safe. So to all the parents who moved in to dacula or something and your child is going to go to dacula middle, Move out now or find another school, but if you can't i recommend private school or online school like the Gwinnett online campus. If you want your child to be safe, alive, and successful. dacula doesn't fit any of those qualities. So plz think of your children after you have read this review. Thank you. And another thing and this is to the teachers. Teachers of dacula middle why don't you care about our children to let them become like this? Do you really want our children to die or get badly injured? If not, try caring for the students for once. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(