Although Clements Middle School has a high poverty level according to the number of students eligible for free and reduced lunches, staff and administration at the school work hard to make sure that education comes first for all their students.
"At Clements Middle School, we believe that all students can achieve academic success with the right guidance and support in an environment that embraces high expectations.

"Our average was above the state average as well," said Principal Joy Scavella. "Reading is the foundation toward success in all areas. In our school, there is a strong focus on reading embedded in our culture. Each year, we present $1,000 to the student who reads the most books, do quality book reports on each book read and uploads them into My Big Campus, which is an online school version of Facebook that our teachers use as a part of their instructional practices.

"I am excited about our great staff from all of our dynamic support staff to our dedicated teachers. We are also excited about our new partnership with Georgia Piedmont Technical College which will assist us in helping students make the connection from performance in school to their future achievements by working on college and career readiness."

Superintendent Gary Mathews said, "When you look at Clements, you find a school with an extremely high poverty rate of approximately 80 percent. And, when you review the school's results, you see all language arts and math scores in the 80s and 90s despite the fact that the school did not earn Adequate Yearly Progress in the last year of the now defunct No-Child-Left-Behind. Given the results on Georgia's assessments related to basic skills, I would suggest that teachers at Clements are quite capable of making a positive impact on their students' learning overcoming the ‘odds' of poverty."