Summary:
Valdez City School District is home to one middle school, George H. Gilson Middle School, serving grades 6 through 8 with 143 students in Valdez, Alaska, a district that ranks #3 out of 23 Alaska school districts with a 5-star rating. As the only middle school in the area, it is the single option for families seeking middle-level education in this community. George H. Gilson is a school on the rise: it improved from #51 out of 94 Alaska middle schools in 2024-2025 to #34 out of 90 in 2025-2026, moving its percentile from 46 to 62 and its star rating from 2 to 3.
During 2025-2026, the school exceeded the Alaska state average in every subject. Math proficiency was 48.3 percent versus 32.2 percent statewide; science was 56.1 percent versus 37.8 percent; and English language arts was 40.0 percent versus 32.9 percent. Mathematics stands out as the most consistent strength, holding near 50 percent proficiency across all three grades, while 8th-grade science proficiency lands more than 20 points above the state. English language arts is more uneven: 6th-grade ELA proficiency is a strong 62.9 percent, but it falls to 33.3 percent in 7th grade and 27.5 percent in 8th grade, dropping below the state average at the 8th-grade level.
Approximately 35 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student-teacher ratio is 15.5 to 1. The per-student spending figure of $19,627 is from 2018-2019 and is fairly typical for smaller Alaska districts. With only about 48 students per grade, a single cohort can noticeably affect school-wide percentages, so year-to-year swings should be read with some caution. The school showed strong momentum in 2025-2026, with ELA proficiency up 9 points, science up 6 points, and math up nearly 3 points over the prior year. Its clearest challenge is lifting upper-grade literacy while keeping math and science results strong; progress in that area could push George H. Gilson Middle School even higher in future statewide rankings.
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