Summary:
Arlington, Massachusetts is home to two middle schools — Ottoson Middle, which serves grades 7–8 with 963 students, and Gibbs School, which serves grade 6 only with 529 students — together enrolling 1,492 students in the Arlington district, which ranks 17th of 351 districts statewide, in the 95th percentile with 5 stars. Both schools score far above the state: every reported proficiency rate is at least 68.56%, while state averages are roughly 40–42%, a gap of about 26 to 43 percentage points depending on subject and school.
Ottoson Middle is the clear standout, ranking 5th of 478 middle schools in 2025–2026, 4th of 484 in 2024–2025, and 12th of 493 in 2023–2024 — a consistent top 1–2% statewide position. Its highest results are 8th-grade civics at 82.66% and 8th-grade math at 81.17%, followed by 8th-grade ELA at 79.46%. Eighth-grade math runs 9.38 points above the school's 7th-grade math score, the largest subject-level contrast inside the school. Year over year, science (+2.34) and civics (+3.61) improved and math edged up slightly, while ELA dipped 2.23 points — a modest decline from an already very high base.
Gibbs School is strong as well, with grade-6 ELA at 71.18% and math at 68.56%, both well above the comparable state figures of about 40–43%. Gibbs' all-grade math appears 1.50 points below the district, but because Gibbs serves only grade 6, the fairer comparison is grade-matched, where Gibbs is slightly above the district's 6th-grade math score. Gibbs' math result fell 1.82 points from the prior year while ELA rose 0.63 points — the clearest negative trend in the data, though not a concern given the school's high absolute performance. Free/reduced-price lunch data is not reported for either school and should not be read as a weakness.
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