Best Public Middle Schools in Spokane
Spokane County's middle-school landscape is dominated by four districts: Spokane Public Schools (the urban core district), Central Valley (the suburban district covering Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake), Mead (the north-county district based in Colbert), and the smaller West Valley School District (a separate entity from the Yakima district of the same name). Unlike the Puget Sound rankings, where King County clusters dominate, the top of the Spokane middle-school list is split fairly evenly among these four districts — a more pluralistic regional pattern.
Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane's South Hill neighborhood leads the list. Sacajawea, a Spokane Public Schools comprehensive of about 860 students, has held a 4-star SchoolDigger rating for several years and ranks roughly fortieth statewide on its middle-school list; the school carries a 57 percent math and 66 percent ELA proficiency rate that is the highest in the county. Horizon Middle in Spokane Valley (Central Valley district) takes second, and Highland Middle in Spokane (Mead district) takes third. Evergreen Middle, also Central Valley, is fourth, and Carla Peperzak Middle in Spokane Public Schools — the district's newest middle school, opened in 2021 and named for the Dutch Holocaust resistance worker who later settled in Spokane — sits at fifth.
Greenacres Middle and Selkirk Middle, both Central Valley schools serving the eastern Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake, occupy ranks six and eight. West Valley City School at rank seven is a small choice/alternative middle school of about 200 students in the West Valley (Spokane) district. Northwood Middle and Mountainside Middle, both in the Mead district, close out the list.
A pattern worth flagging: Central Valley School District places four schools in the top ten (Horizon, Evergreen, Greenacres, Selkirk), the largest concentration of any Spokane County district. Mead places three (Highland, Northwood, Mountainside). Spokane Public Schools, despite being the largest district by enrollment, places only two (Sacajawea and Carla Peperzak) — partly a function of the district's higher poverty share and the way its middle-school catchments are drawn across more demographically varied neighborhoods. Proficiency at the top of this list (around 57 percent math, 66 percent ELA) is meaningfully below Eastside-Seattle peers but represents the best of the inland-Northwest urban regions.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public middle schools whose attendance area is in Spokane County, ordered by Smarter Balanced math and ELA proficiency averages from OSPI's most recent published 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 — Cataldo, Saint Aloysius, Saint Charles, All Saints, Saint Thomas More — appear in a separate ranking.
Ranked schools
- 001SACAJAWEA MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE62%
- 002HORIZON MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE59%
- 003HIGHLAND MIDDLE SCHOOLMEAD SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE56%
- 004EVERGREEN MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE55%
- 005CARLA PEPERZAK MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE55%
- 006GREENACRES MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE54%
- 007WEST VALLEY CITY SCHOOLWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (SPOKANE) · SPOKANE52%
- 008SELKIRK MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE51%
- 009NORTHWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLMEAD SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE51%
- 010MOUNTAINSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOLMEAD SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE50%
- 011CHASE MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE46%
- 012PAULINE FLETT MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE40%
- 013EAST VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOLEAST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (SPOKANE) · SPOKANE39%
- 014WESTWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLCHENEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE36%
- 015SALK MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE34%
- 016BOWDISH MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE32%
- 017CENTENNIAL MIDDLE SCHOOLWEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT (SPOKANE) · SPOKANE31%
- 018NORTH PINES MIDDLE SCHOOLCENTRAL VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE29%
- 019GLOVER MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE27%
- 020GARRY MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE26%
- 021SHAW MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE19%
- 022DENNY YASUHARA MIDDLE SCHOOLSPOKANE SCHOOL DISTRICT · SPOKANE19%
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