Summary:
Zip code 99645 is home to just one middle school, Palmer Middle School, which serves grades 6–8 and enrolls 563 students in Palmer, Alaska. Because there are no other middle schools in the area, all meaningful comparisons are drawn against the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District and Alaska statewide averages.
Palmer Middle School consistently outperforms the state in every core subject. In 2025–2026, its proficiency rates were about 5.6 points above the state average in English language arts, 5.8 points above in math, and 9.1 points above in science. However, the school trails its own district in all three subjects, with math showing the largest gap—Palmer sits roughly 4 points behind the district average. A key concern is a sharp decline in ELA proficiency, which fell from 44.85% in 2024–2025 to 38.46% in 2025–2026, dropping the school from above the district average to below it. Within the school, 7th-grade ELA is a notable weak spot at 33.54% proficiency, about 7 points lower than both 6th and 8th grade ELA. In math, the pattern is reversed: 6th grade is weakest at 32.74%, while 7th and 8th grades both hover around 40.6% proficiency.
Science is the school’s strongest subject relative to the state. In 8th grade science, Palmer’s 46.91% proficiency is well above Alaska’s 35.17% average and also slightly above the district's 46.55% average. Statewide ranking for the school has been unstable: 57th out of 91 middle schools in 2023–2024, improving to 44th out of 94 in 2024–2025, then slipping to 49th out of 90 in 2025–2026. That places Palmer in the middle of Alaska’s middle schools, despite being part of Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District—a district ranked 6th out of 23 in the state. For parents, this suggests Palmer is a solid but mid-performing school within a notably strong district, with bright spots in science and areas for improvement in literacy and early-grade math.
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