Middle Schools in New Bedford

New Bedford has three middle schools serving grades 6–8 — Normandin Middle School, Keith Middle School, and Roosevelt Middle School — with a combined enrollment of 2,698 students in the New Bedford district, which ranks 327 of 351 districts statewide (7th percentile, 0 stars).

All three schools score far below state averages in every subject, and the district context is challenging. Keith Middle School is the relative leader: it holds the highest state rank percentile each year (17th in 2025-26, down from 26th in 2023-24) and leads the group in all-grades math (20.73%) and science (14.58%), as well as 8th-grade ELA, math, and science. Normandin Middle School is the largest school (990 students, highest student/teacher ratio at 11.8) and leads in ELA, including the top all-grades ELA score (20.71%) and the best 7th-grade ELA and math results; its weakest area is 8th-grade civics (9.32%). Roosevelt Middle School is the smallest (759 students) with the lowest student/teacher ratio (10.0) and highest per-student spending in the provided 2020-21 data ($17,607), and it leads in civics (14.22%) and 6th-grade math (27.94%), but posts the lowest all-grades ELA (18.53%), math (17.15%), and science (8.11%).

Science is a shared weakness: no school reaches the district's 16.05% all-grades science figure, and all fall far below the state's 40.98%. ELA declined at all three schools year over year (Normandin -3.50, Keith -3.75, Roosevelt -1.64). Performance also varies sharply by grade — Roosevelt's 6th-grade math is a standout while its 8th-grade math (8.14%) and science (8.11%) are the lowest of the group. Free/reduced-price lunch data is unavailable, and spending figures are from 2020-21, so these comparisons are descriptive rather than causal.