Best Middle Schools in Gilbert, AZ

The city of Gilbert, Arizona is home to 4 middle schools serving grades 6-8, with a mix of strong-performing and lower-performing institutions. Greenfield Junior High School and South Valley Junior High consistently rank among the top 25% of middle schools in Arizona, earning 4-star ratings from SchoolDigger. These schools outperform the Gilbert Unified District and the state of Arizona in key academic areas like science, English language arts, and mathematics proficiency. In contrast, Mesquite Junior High School lags behind, with lower proficiency rates across the board.

Dropout rates are a concern across all 4 Gilbert middle schools, with each reporting a 5.2% dropout rate, higher than the state average. Spending per student varies, from $5,512 at Greenfield Junior High to $7,437 at Mesquite Junior High, but this does not directly correlate with academic performance. Similarly, student-teacher ratios range from 17.3 at Cooley Middle School to 16.6 at Mesquite Junior High, suggesting that factors beyond just funding and staffing may be driving the academic success of the top-performing schools.

Overall, the data analysis highlights the strong performance of Greenfield Junior High and South Valley Junior High, while identifying the need for improvement at Mesquite Junior High. The findings suggest that the Gilbert Unified District could benefit from further investigation into the specific practices and strategies employed by the top-performing schools, in order to replicate their success and address the concerning dropout rates across the middle school system.