Summary:
Zip code 99652 is home to one middle school: Houston Middle School, which serves 318 students in grades 6–8 in Houston, Alaska. The school belongs to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, a 4-star district ranked 6th out of 23 districts in Alaska. By contrast, Houston Middle School itself carries a 1-star rating and ranks 72nd out of 90 middle schools statewide, placing it in the 20th percentile.
Subject performance at Houston Middle School is mixed. Science is its strongest area: 39.8% of students are proficient in 2025–2026, above Alaska's state average of 37.81%. English Language Arts proficiency is 27.38%, below the state's 32.89%, while math is the weakest subject at just 23.81% proficiency. Grade-level data reveals a sharp pattern: 6th graders achieve 44.68% ELA proficiency, beating both district and state averages, but that number collapses to roughly 17–18% in 7th and 8th grades. Math proficiency also declines steadily by grade, falling from 30.34% in 6th grade to 17.17% in 8th grade, meaning more than four out of five eighth graders are not meeting math standards.
The school has shown encouraging but incomplete improvement. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, science proficiency rose by 4.61 points, ELA rose by 3.13 points, and math inched up just 0.14 points. Its state percentile has climbed from the 10th to the 20th over three years, yet all core subjects remain below district averages. With 74.21% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, Houston Middle serves a predominantly low-income population. The gap between this 1-star school and its strong 4-star district suggests Houston Middle is one of the lower-performing schools within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, and its upward trend makes it a school worth watching.
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