Seward Middle School

Seward Middle School in Seward, AK, is a small public school serving 104 students in grades 6–8 and is part of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, with no other schools located within 20 miles. For the 2025-26 school year, Seward Middle School holds a 0-star SchoolDigger rating and ranks 82nd out of 90 Alaska middle schools, placing it in the 9th percentile statewide. That is a steep decline from just a few years ago, when the school ranked 43rd of 92 schools (53rd percentile) with a 3-star rating in 2022-23.

Test scores tell a similar story. In 2025-26, only 23.9% of students were proficient in English Language Arts, compared with 37.7% across the district and 32.9% statewide. Math proficiency was just 16.3%, far below the district's 38.4% and the state's 32.2%. The drop has been dramatic: in 2022-23, ELA proficiency was 44.1% and math was 46.5% — both above district and state averages. Since then, math scores have declined every year. Science is a relative bright spot; 8th-grade science proficiency was 36.7% in 2025-26, slightly above the statewide average of 35.2%.

Families should also note the shifting conditions at the school. Free/reduced-price meal eligibility has risen from 26.6% to 36.5% since 2022-23, and the student-teacher ratio has increased from 12.7 to 16.9, meaning fewer teachers per student at a time when more students need support. Yet the school has shown strong effectiveness in the past — in 2023-24, low-income students ranked in the 87th percentile statewide. More recent effectiveness ratings, however, vary widely across student groups, suggesting that supports may not be reaching all students equally. Given the steep decline over just three school years, parents may want to ask school leaders about changes in staffing, curriculum, and attendance since 2022-23.