Best Public Middle Schools in Tacoma / Pierce County
Pierce County's middle-school ranking is shaped by the same demographic spread that shapes the high-school version of this list: an upscale University Place anchor, the maritime Peninsula district on the far side of the Tacoma Narrows, the established Sumner-Bonney Lake suburbs, and the long Tacoma Public Schools tail running from the North End to South Tacoma. The University Place School District places three schools in the top four of this list, an unusually concentrated showing for a 5,000-student district.
Narrows View Intermediate in University Place, a fifth-through-seventh school of about 680 students, leads the list at 71 percent math and 79 percent ELA proficiency and consistently ranks in the top thirty middle schools statewide. Drum Intermediate, the second University Place school, is second, and Sumner Middle in the Sumner-Bonney Lake district is third.
Curtis Junior High is fourth. Curtis is the eighth-and-ninth-grade companion to the larger Curtis Senior High and, despite an enrollment that pushes it toward high-school size, is classified as a middle school in OSPI's database. Harbor Ridge Middle, Kopachuck Middle, and Goodman Middle, all in the Peninsula district, take fifth through seventh, giving Peninsula three of the top seven, a pattern that mirrors the district's strong showing at the high-school level. Kalles Junior High in Puyallup is eighth.
Mason Middle School in Tacoma, the only Tacoma Public Schools entry in the top ten, sits at ninth. The school is part of the IB-MYP feeder pattern that prepares students for Stadium High School's IB program. Pioneer Middle in DuPont (Steilacoom Historical district), which also appears on the Olympia regional list because Steilacoom Historical straddles the Pierce-Thurston line, closes out the list.
A pattern worth flagging: the University Place and Peninsula districts together account for six of the top ten schools, even though Tacoma Public Schools is by far the largest middle-school provider in the county by enrollment. The Bethel and Franklin Pierce districts, which together serve much of unincorporated south Pierce County, do not place a single school in the top ten; south Pierce's measured middle-school outcomes lag the rest of the county.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public middle schools whose attendance area is in the Tacoma–Pierce County region as defined in the Atlas, 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. Charter and option schools are eligible if classified as public; private middle schools — Charles Wright, Annie Wright Middle, Bellarmine — appear in a separate ranking.
Ranked schools
- 001NARROWS VIEW INTERMEDIATEUNIVERSITY PLACE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE75%
- 002DRUM INTERMEDIATEUNIVERSITY PLACE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE63%
- 003SUMNER MIDDLE SCHOOLSUMNER-BONNEY LAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE62%
- 004CURTIS JUNIOR HIGHUNIVERSITY PLACE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE62%
- 005HARBOR RIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOLPENINSULA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE61%
- 006KOPACHUCK MIDDLE SCHOOLPENINSULA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE61%
- 007GOODMAN MIDDLE SCHOOLPENINSULA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE57%
- 008KALLES JUNIOR HIGHPUYALLUP SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE54%
- 009MASON MIDDLE SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE54%
- 010PIONEER MIDDLESTEILACOOM HIST. SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE51%
- 011HUNT MIDDLE SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE45%
- 012EDGEMONT JR HIGHPUYALLUP SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE44%
- 013SPANAWAY MIDDLE SCHOOLBETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE44%
- 014MEEKER MIDDLE SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE42%
- 015TRUMAN MIDDLE SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE41%
- 016GLACIER VIEW JUNIOR HIGHPUYALLUP SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE40%
- 017FRONTIER MIDDLE SCHOOLBETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE40%
- 018LIBERTY MIDDLE SCHOOLBETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE39%
- 019ORTING MIDDLE SCHOOLORTING SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE38%
- 020BRYANT MONTESSORI MIDDLE SCHOOLTACOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE38%
- 021SURPRISE LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLFIFE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE37%
- 022BETHEL MIDDLE SCHOOLBETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE37%
- 023MT BAKER MIDDLE SCHOOLAUBURN SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING37%
- 024LAKOTA MIDDLE SCHOOLFEDERAL WAY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING36%
- 025KILO MIDDLE SCHOOLFEDERAL WAY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING35%
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