Summary:
The Jerome Joint District is home to just one middle school, Jerome Middle School, which serves grades 6–8 with an enrollment of 937 students in Jerome, ID. Because this is the only middle school in Jerome Joint District, its performance fully determines the district's middle-grade results, and the district itself ranks in the bottom 6% of Idaho districts.
Jerome Middle School consistently outperforms its district averages in all-grade Math, ELA, and Science proficiency, but it remains far below state averages in every subject. In 2025–2026, only 25.1% of students were proficient in Math and 36.3% in ELA, compared to state rates of 43.1% and 54.0% respectively. Science is the relative strength, with 8th-grade proficiency at 36.0% versus the state's 42.9%, a gap of just 6.9 points. The school's state ranking history shows it in the bottom 20% of Idaho middle schools, currently at the 11th percentile with a 1-star rating. Notably, 7th-grade ELA shows the largest deficit at 23.5 points below the state, suggesting literacy is a critical area for intervention.
With 65.96% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, Jerome Middle School serves a predominantly low-income population, which is important context for interpreting its test scores. Chronic absenteeism is not a major concern; the rate of 12.7% is below the district average of 13.5% and close to the state rate. Recent test scores improved slightly from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, yet the school's percentile dropped from 19th to 11th, indicating other schools are advancing faster. Overall, Jerome Middle School is not underperforming its district, and science offers a foundation to build upon, but the most urgent needs are math and literacy intervention, particularly for 7th-grade ELA.
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