Middle Schools in Mesa Unified District

The 10 middle schools in Mesa Unified District serve grades 7–8, except Shepherd Junior High School, which serves grades 4–8. Across the schools, average proficiency is 37% in ELA and 25% in math for 2025–26, compared with 41% and 33% statewide; eighth-grade science averages 28%, versus 30% statewide in 2024–25. The most important finding is the wide variation between schools, with Franklin Junior High School far ahead of the rest.

Franklin Junior High School leads in all three subjects, with 87% ELA, 69% math and 77% science proficiency—46, 36 and 47 percentage points above state results. Stapley Junior High School is the strongest broad-based performer after Franklin: its 47% ELA, 46% math and 41% science results are all above state levels. At the lower end, Carson Junior High School has the lowest ELA result at 17%, while Kino Junior High School is lowest in math at 5% and science at 8%. SchoolDigger ranks Franklin 17th of 536 statewide (97th percentile), compared with Kino at 520th (3rd percentile) and Carson at 513th (4th percentile).

SchoolDigger’s average statewide percentile for these schools rose from 35 to 37 between 2023–24 and 2025–26, but that is a ranking trend, not evidence that test scores improved. Poston Junior High School had the largest percentile gain, 15 points, while Smith Junior High School fell 3 points. Size and student-teacher ratio do not provide a simple guide to results: Franklin has the smallest enrollment at 288, while large Stapley (899 students) also performs well; Smith’s ratio is the lowest at 16.8, and Shepherd’s is the highest at 20.6. One caution: Kino’s eighth-grade math result is suppressed, and free/reduced-lunch figures are unavailable.