Best Public Middle Schools in Snohomish County
Snohomish County's middle-school landscape is divided among the Everett, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Snohomish, Lake Stevens, and Stanwood-Camano districts in the south and central county, with Northshore reaching across the King-Snohomish line into Bothell and Mill Creek. The county has been building and rebuilding middle schools steadily since 2008, and the leaders on this list reflect a mix of newer-build campuses and well-established neighborhood comprehensives.
Gateway Middle School in Everett leads the list. Gateway opened in 1994 in the Silver Firs area and was expanded in 2004 with voter-approved bonds; the school posts a 72 percent SBA math proficiency rate that is the highest in the county at the middle-school level. Skyview Middle in Bothell (Northshore) takes second, and Heatherwood Middle in Mill Creek (Everett School District) takes third — a Northshore-Everett one-two-three at the top. Valley View Middle in Snohomish, Brier Terrace Middle in Edmonds' Brier neighborhood, and Canyon Park Middle in Bothell follow.
Harbour Pointe Middle in Mukilteo, on the Whidbey-facing edge of the Mukilteo School District, is the only Mukilteo school in the top ten and feeds into Kamiak High. Lake Stevens Middle and North Lake Middle, both in the Lake Stevens district, sit at ranks eight and nine. Port Susan Middle in Stanwood, the county's northernmost top-ten entry, closes out the list.
The Everett School District places three schools in the top ten (Gateway, Heatherwood, plus the just-out-of-frame Eisenhower), more than any other Snohomish County district. Northshore places two (Skyview and Canyon Park), Edmonds places one (Brier Terrace), Lake Stevens places two, and the Snohomish, Mukilteo, and Stanwood-Camano districts each place one. The data shape is more compressed than in the high-school ranking — only nine percentage points separate the top-ranked Gateway (72 percent SBA math) from the tenth-ranked Port Susan (48 percent), and ELA proficiency rates cluster between 79 and 59 across the top ten. That compression suggests middle-school instructional quality across Snohomish County's leading districts is more uniform than the high-school equivalents.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public middle schools whose attendance area is in Snohomish County, plus the Northshore district's Bothell-area schools (which cross the King-Snohomish line and share the south-county labor market), ordered by Smarter Balanced math and ELA proficiency averages from OSPI's most recent Report Card. SAT, AP, and Polaris figures are unavailable at the middle-school level. Schools with fewer than thirty tested students are excluded for statistical stability. Charter and option schools are eligible if classified as public; private middle schools, including Archbishop Murphy in Everett, appear in a separate ranking.
Ranked schools
- 001GATEWAY MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH73%
- 002SKYVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING67%
- 003HEATHERWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH67%
- 004VALLEY VIEW MIDDLE SCHOOLSNOHOMISH SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH61%
- 005NORTH LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE STEVENS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH59%
- 006BRIER TERRACE MIDDLE SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH59%
- 007LAKE STEVENS MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE STEVENS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH59%
- 008PORT SUSAN MIDDLE SCHOOLSTANWOOD-CAMANO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH57%
- 009EISENHOWER MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH57%
- 010CANYON PARK MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING57%
- 011HARBOUR POINTE MIDDLE SCHOOLMUKILTEO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH54%
- 012MEADOWDALE MIDDLE SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH53%
- 013CAVELERO MID HIGH SCHOOLLAKE STEVENS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH52%
- 014HIDDEN RIVER MIDDLE SCHOOLMONROE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH48%
- 015OLYMPIC VIEW MIDDLE SCHOOLMUKILTEO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH48%
- 016NORTH MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH45%
- 017CENTENNIAL MIDDLE SCHOOLSNOHOMISH SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH44%
- 018STANWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLSTANWOOD-CAMANO SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH44%
- 019COLLEGE PLACE MIDDLE SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH44%
- 020CEDARCREST SCHOOLMARYSVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH42%
- 02110TH STREET SCHOOLMARYSVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH40%
- 022PARK PLACE MIDDLE SCHOOLMONROE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH40%
- 023ALDERWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLEDMONDS SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH39%
- 024HALLER MIDDLE SCHOOLARLINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH36%
- 025EVERGREEN MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH36%
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