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. Pine Lake Middle in Sammamish, Tyee Middle in Bellevue, Timberline Middle in Redmond, Beaver Lake Middle in Issaquah, 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. Issaquah places two (Pine Lake and Beaver Lake), Bellevue one (Tyee, with Odle just outside the frame), and Bainbridge one. The geographic concentration is even tighter than at the high-school level. Every school in the top ten clears 80 percent proficiency averaged across math and ELA, 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.
† OSPI withheld this school's 2025-26 result in one or both subjects under its top/bottom suppression rule; the school's 2024-25 result is used for that subject.
Ranked schools
- 001NORTHSTAR MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING92%†
- 002STELLA SCHOLALAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING90%
- 003ENVIRONMENTAL & ADVENTURE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING85%†
- 004EVERGREEN MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING84%
- 005PINE LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 006TYEE MIDDLE SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING82%
- 007TIMBERLINE MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING81%
- 008BEAVER LAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING81%
- 009INGLEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING81%
- 010WOODWARD MIDDLE SCHOOLBAINBRIDGE ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KITSAP80%
- 011SNOQUALMIE MIDDLE SCHOOLSNOQUALMIE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING79%
- 012ISLANDER MIDDLE SCHOOLMERCER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING78%
- 013HAMILTON INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING77%
- 014ROSE HILL MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING76%
- 015ODLE MIDDLE SCHOOLBELLEVUE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING76%
- 016PACIFIC CASCADE MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING76%
- 017RENAISSANCE SCHOOL OF ART AND REASONINGLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING75%
- 018TIMBERCREST MIDDLE SCHOOLNORTHSHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING75%
- 019NARROWS VIEW INTERMEDIATEUNIVERSITY PLACE SCHOOL DISTRICT · PIERCE75%
- 020KIRKLAND MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKE WASHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING74%
- 021CHIEF KANIM MIDDLE SCHOOLSNOQUALMIE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING74%
- 022GATEWAY MIDDLE SCHOOLEVERETT SCHOOL DISTRICT · SNOHOMISH73%
- 023COUGAR MOUNTAIN MIDDLE SCHOOLISSAQUAH SCHOOL DISTRICT · KING73%
- 024WHITMAN MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING73%
- 025ECKSTEIN MIDDLE SCHOOLSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 · KING72%
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