Summary:
Zip code 19956 in Laurel, DE, is home to a single middle school, Laurel Middle School, which serves grades 7 and 8 with a total enrollment of 373 students as part of the Laurel School District.
For parents considering this area, the most striking feature of Laurel Middle School is its exceptional chronic absenteeism rate of just 1.7% for the 2024-2025 school year. This is dramatically better than both the district average of 18.7% and the state average of 17.1%, suggesting a highly engaged student body that shows up consistently. The school is also on a positive trajectory, improving its state ranking for three consecutive years, moving from the 15th percentile (1 star) in 2023-2024 to the 42nd percentile (2 stars) in 2025-2026, where it now ranks 34th out of 59 middle schools in Delaware. The student-teacher ratio is a reasonable 14.6, and per-student spending was $12,007 in 2018-2019.
However, academic performance reveals a mixed picture with clear areas of concern. There is a consistent and significant gap between grade levels, with 7th graders outperforming 8th graders across all subjects. In the 2025-2026 school year, 7th graders scored 43.5% proficient in ELA compared to 33.7% for 8th graders, and in Social Studies the gap was even larger at 51.4% versus 29.3%. The most critical weakness is 8th-grade Science, where only 7.7% of students are proficient, less than half the state average of 16.4%. While 7th-grade Social Studies is the school's strongest subject at 51.4% proficiency, it still trails the state average of 59.9%. Overall, the school shows promise with its low absenteeism and improving ranking, but parents should be aware of the significant academic challenges, particularly in science and for 8th graders.
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