Best Public Middle Schools in Washington
A statewide ranking of Washington's public middle schools is, even more than the equivalent high-school list, a ranking of King County. Nine of the ten leading schools in this composite are in Lake Washington, Bellevue, Issaquah, Mercer Island, or Bainbridge Island school districts, and the top three are all small Lake Washington choice programs whose self-selected catchments would tend to score well anywhere they were placed. The list illustrates a structural feature of Washington's middle-school system: where district leadership has invested in alternative-format middle schools (Northstar, Stella Schola, EAS), those schools tend to cluster at the very top of any statewide proficiency ranking.
Northstar Middle School in Kirkland leads the list. Northstar is a small Lake Washington choice school of about ninety students, with multi-age, theme-based classes and four full-time teachers. Stella Schola, also Lake Washington, takes second — a choice school in Redmond organized around year-long historical themes, with thirty students per grade. Environmental & Adventure School (EAS), the third Lake Washington choice school, places third with a place-based outdoor curriculum. Together, the three schools enroll fewer than 320 students combined — a tiny share of Washington's middle-school population, but a disproportionate share of the top of any proficiency-based ranking.
Evergreen Middle School in the Lake Washington district takes fourth. Tyee Middle in Bellevue, Beaver Lake Middle in Issaquah, Timberline Middle in Redmond, Pine Lake Middle in Sammamish, and Inglewood Middle in Sammamish — five large suburban comprehensives — fill ranks five through nine. Woodward Middle on Bainbridge Island, the only non-King-County entry in the top ten, closes out the list.
A few patterns deserve emphasis. The Lake Washington School District places six schools in the top ten — Northstar, Stella Schola, EAS, Evergreen, Timberline, and Inglewood — more than any other district. Bellevue places two (Tyee and the just-out-of-frame Odle), Issaquah places two (Beaver Lake and Pine Lake), and Bainbridge places one. The geographic concentration is even tighter than at the high-school level. Notably, every school in the top ten clears 78 percent SBA math proficiency, a threshold that almost no school outside of King and Kitsap counties reaches at the middle-school level.
A note on scope: this ranking covers public middle schools statewide and orders them 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, though several of the qualifying choice schools sit just above that floor. Charter and option schools are eligible if classified as public; private middle schools — Bush, Lakeside Middle, Forest Ridge, Eastside Preparatory, Charles Wright Middle — appear in a separate ranking.
Ranked schools
- 001NORTHSTAR MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING94%
- 002STELLA SCHOLALAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING89%
- 003ENVIRONMENTAL & ADVENTURE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING85%
- 004EVERGREEN MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING84%
- 005TYEE MIDDLE SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING83%
- 006BEAVER LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 007TIMBERLINE MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 008PINE LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 009INGLEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 010WOODWARD MIDDLE SCHOOLBAINBRIDGE ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KITSAP79%
- 011SNOQUALMIE MIDDLE SCHOOLSNOQUALMIE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING78%
- 012ISLANDER MIDDLE SCHOOLMERCER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING78%
- 013ODLE MIDDLE SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING77%
- 014ROSE HILL MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING77%
- 015TIMBERCREST MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING76%
- 016PACIFIC CASCADE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING76%
- 017HAMILTON INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING76%
- 018GATEWAY MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH76%
- 019COUGAR MOUNTAIN MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING75%
- 020ECKSTEIN MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING74%
- 021ROBERT EAGLE STAFF MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING73%
- 022NARROWS VIEW INTERMEDIATEUNIVERSITY PLACE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE72%
- 023REDMOND MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING72%
- 024MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING71%
- 025ODYSSEY MIDDLE SCHOOLCAMAS SCHOOL DISTRICT · CLARK71%
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