Rockvale Middle School

6543 State Highway 99

School District

Rutherford County
Grade

6-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:16
Type

public

School Map for Rutherford 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 student on November 25, 2024

I'm currently a student here at Rockvale Middle and, as far as i can tell, it is an OK school. Although I may be fairly uneducated regarding the topic of this school but from my experience I can tell that this school has many things it needs to work on. Firstly is the teaching, the teachers, at least in my mini school, are somewhat supportive of their students and seem to have a care for their students academic success, but I feel that the teachers do not care enough about their students and seemingly care more for the statistics they get from it. Which is not very good if you want to provide a safe and inviting learning place for your students. Now this is a rather shaky topic as i only know some of the story, special education. I myself am gifted classifying me as special education. My gifted teacher does a very good job at providing me and other gifted students with the challenges needed for our higher level of intellect, and it gives a fun spin to the usual school day. The final topic i'll be covering in this review is safety. I personally find safety to be a big concern for this school as i see many fights break lose and the teachers don't really ever handle them well. When a fight happens the teachers will try to move the students away from the fight but they rarely ever actually do anything to break the students apart. Another topic that falls under the safety category is how the teachers treat students. As far as i can tell teachers tend to give out rather harsh punishments and sometimes over tiny things. An example that i've seen firsthand is getting ISS simply for talking, I mean think about that getting in school suspension simply because you and a friend were just trying to have fun in the classroom. Now i get school should be a place of learning but this school is stripping away students of their childhood and trying to form them into mindless husks simply because they want better records for bragging rights. In the end if you have a choice i would not recommend enrolling your child in this school.- 7B student
Submitted by parent on November 28, 2023

Parent of 3kids. I WOULDN’T recommend this school to my worse enemy. They would make your babies last few year of being a kid a living HELL! If your child has special needs such as ADHD or ADD and has a 504/IEP this isn’t the school for you. I have battled with this school for my son 2 years now. From the time my kid walks through those doors it’s straight hell. Staff does not follow legally binding documents such as a 504, admin staff is only one sided and does not care to hear a child’s side of the story, principals are the same. The only two principals that let you speak and obtains the full story before making their judgements are Mr. Butler and Dr. Parker. The write ups are crazy and stupid at times, you will get written up for even looking wrong. I have spoken with many parents that have kids attending this school and thought maybe my child is bad. Nope! That’s what RMS wants you to believe but we all realize it’s the admin staff because we all have the complaints/concerns. Don’t bother calling, leaving voicemails or writing principle Newberry because you will not hear back from her or even care to address situations until it turns into a bigger issue. If your child goes here PLEASE investigate situations before disciplining them. 99.9% of the time it’s not what happened and don’t let the staff get away with how they treat our kids. The school nurse has a nasty attitude and does NOT care about her students, she speaks to parents very unprofessionally and clearly hates her job! I will give credit to very few teachers (10%) that works with parents, has that line of communication and truly loves teaching and isn’t there because they have to be. Along with some admin staff such as Mrs. Cleghorne who has a sweet and caring soul and would do anything to help her babies.
Submitted by parent on October 17, 2023

As a parent of more that one student in attendance, I can firsthand advise against Rockvale Middle School. If you have a choice, this isn't the place for student engagement or competent leadership. The teachers are allowed to address students in derogatory tones and lead with fear tactics. It is pointless trying to bring correction to the attention of the teachers as the current principal is unprofessional and will be biased and side with her staff when admittedly not present to witness occurrences. She is a great example of what the judicial system can be for many, guilty until proven guilty. Long gone are the days of teachers that care and have a passion for teaching. If your student must enroll keep the lines of communication open with your student.
Submitted by other on July 30, 2022

It's alright. I used to go to this school, and compare to all the other schools I went to in Murfreesboro, it is the best. Most of the kids there are good kids, and the teacher that I had worked hard. It has room for improvement. Also, dear upcoming freshman for Rockvale High, do not go to Rockvale High! It is Hell on Earth!
Submitted by parent on September 27, 2021

Hi if your moving to anywhere you zoned for this school here is my opinion. this school might Seem good at all but this is 2021 and there is still Covid 19 going around yes they did say 10% opted out but 50% of who didn’t does not where there mask right. There are teachers who are not ether the. bathrooms are unsanitary and smell I would not recommend going to the bathroom when you change periods because a lot of people are going in and out And as in my mini school you have a little slip of toilets yes toilets in 7th grade you have a 5 times to go to the bathroom in 9 weeks if you ran out in the middle of the 9 weeks well your have to wait till you change classes Also the teachers are kind and nice but I have friends who have the meanest and say they are Unpolite and plain up rude. The system they use for grades is skyward witch is good but they also use something called Jupiter ed one reason why everyone hate it is you can turn something in late and you will have to wait for the teachers to grade it to get it to not be missing I think google classroom will be better for everyone but who am I to make the decisions for this school. The substitute teachers are rude to I know they are low on them but it’s just something here at rockvale. Busses This might not be for all buses but this is about the bus I ride bus I live on a big street where alot of kids go to rockvale and I think they need to run more buses because my bus is full every day I am talking 3 to a seat kids standing up kids not wearing there masks and in the summer hot and just plain up just a mess one time my bus driver got quarantined and we had to merge buses! Kids where standing up for 3 stops! This is just from me if your reading this I hope you learned something thank you.
Submitted by parent on June 22, 2020

Keep up the great work. I’m so happy I moved to this area great job Rockvale teachers.
Submitted by parent on February 17, 2017

This is hands down the worst school in the county. Every time you go in there everyone looks totally miserable and hate their lives. When I leave there I always feel worse then when I got there. I have substitute taught there and my child goes there and it has always been an extremely negative experience anytime you enter the doors, no matter what. It's a sad situation. Not one time have I ever even seen the principal's face. I guess I wouldn't want to show my face either if that's the kind of place I was in charge of. There was one time that I had an issue and needed to speak with the principal about it and I had left multiple emails and several phone messages about the matter and not one time did I get a response from him. Not the kind of leader I want to be leading my kids or anyone else's kids really. They treat the children as if they were and the latter years of high school or in college one. They are taking away the last few good years to be a child away from them. They do absolutely nothing fun with the kids; no field trips, no parties nothing. It's really I situition. I don't get it. Why do you choose a profession that works solely with kids when you act like you can't stand them. I will never understand that. It's nothing like it was for us as kids. As least we had a chance. So if you are looking for a good school for your child I would advise looking elsewhere. If you just scroll down a little bit and read the rest of the reviews then you will understand what a poor excuse of a school this really is
Submitted by other on November 12, 2016

We have had a fantastic overall experience at Rockvale academically and athletically. We are so happy we moved to this area.
Submitted by other on August 12, 2016

First week of school a new student is intimidated by teacher who catches student finishing up work for another class. Yes that was not correct for the student. But was worse for the teacher to seize the work and tear it up and throw it away. This was a gifted student new to school. Good crew Mr. BARLOW. Child psychological wellbeing deminished. Leaving school district.
Submitted by teacher on May 28, 2016

Rockvale Middle school is a school focused on student success in academics and also in extracurricular activities, along with preparing kids to be successful in life.
Submitted by parent on December 01, 2015

I love Rockvale Middle School ! My son has a great experience since 6th and he is about to finish 8th grade soon. They developed the reading skills he needed and reinforced the algebra ability with special classes. He also participates in the Beta Club and the Soccer team. It is a gorgeous School to learn, communicate and have friends.
Submitted by other on November 30, 2015

I went to this school two years ago and had the worst time possible. Teachers told me I would fail, and that I would never really amount to anything even though I did nothing wrong. At one point a teacher got in my face and screamed at me but the principals did nothing about it. I am in high school now playing sports and making great grades. Sounds like I really amounted to nothing.
Submitted by other on March 08, 2015

Terrible School. The bullying at this school is ridiculous and teachers do nothing about it. There is an extreme amount of of profanity used around the school and often used to people names. There have been many fights this year and teachers haven't done anything to prevent them. Kids in athletic programs tend to get special treatment. Unless you plan on making a sports team, I highly recommend going somewhere else.
Submitted by other on June 10, 2014

Rockvale middle is the worst school I have ever attended. The teachers treat you so wrong, that you constantly feel bad about yourself. I have been called names by a teacher there and the principal knew about it and did nothing. You can get accused of something you didn't even do by the teachers, and when you try to explain yourself all they do is not listen, and stick to the wrong side of the story. I don't recommend this school at all!
Submitted by parent on May 01, 2014

Completely thrilled - my 7th grader has totally excelled! Great sports and great music dept!
Submitted by parent on March 04, 2014

Worst school ever. They do not care for their students and don't care if they succeed. I made a mistake sending my son here. Please rethink sending your children to this school, especially if they have problems with school to begin with. Such as a learning problem. Careless people.
Submitted by other on January 13, 2014

Rockvale Middle School is one of the worst schools I ever attended. Everyone was so rude especially the assistant principals. A middle school teachers job is to prepare you for high school and the math teachers did just the opposite where I was not prepared for high school level algebra If I had the choice to move schools at the time I would have switched in a heartbeat. The amount of bullying at Rockvale was absolutely ridiculous. The teachers do not care about the students because if they did then the bullying wouldn't be as bad. There should be new teachers because the current ones can't teach. I am just glad that i am no longer a student of that terrible excuse for a school. I wish i could go lower than a 1/5 for the rating.
Submitted by parent on November 25, 2013

Was not pleased with this school at all. If you have a child within special needs this district and school is not for you. When we lived there, we had countless meetings with teachers, principle etc. They classified my child as being unorganized, not participating in class, not asking for help etc. I kept telling them that I believed he was on the Autism spectrum and he was having serious problems learning the material. They kept brushing me off. Long story short, we moved out of state, I scheduled a meeting with in the first month of my child attending the new school. They immediately picked up on the fact he did have a learning disability and was finally dx on the spectrum. My child had a horrible time in middle school and still remembers the issues. I am so grateful with our new district and so is he.
Submitted by other on April 05, 2013

The school should have better enforcement on rules about bullying. My best friend goes to this school and they get bullied constantly all day every day, which is making their grades really low. My friend told me he was on the school bus and he was knocked to the floor of the bus and kicked constantly over and over. The educational system seems very stable compared to the schools I've seen in the past.