Roosevelt Middle School

Roosevelt Middle School is a grades 6–8 school at 119 Frederick Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts, enrolling 759 students and serving as the smallest of the city's three middle schools, alongside Normandin Middle School and Keith Middle School in the New Bedford district.

Its statewide picture is consistently low: for 2025–26 the school ranked 411 of 478 Massachusetts middle schools (bottom 14%, 1 star), and it has earned 1-star ratings for ten consecutive reporting years without ever ranking above the 21st percentile. Proficiency sits at 18.53% in English Language Arts, 17.15% in math, and 8.11% in science, against statewide rates near 40% in each subject. Science is the sharpest concern — down from 23.33% in 2022–23 to 8.11%, roughly half the district rate and less than one-fifth of the state rate, and falling faster than the district's own science results. Civics is the one bright spot, the only subject where the school outperforms its district (14.22% vs. 11.10%).

Nearby schools show what is possible locally: Hastings Middle, 2.6 miles away, and Dartmouth Middle, about 3 miles away, post two to three times Roosevelt's proficiency in every subject while spending less per student. Roosevelt spends $17,607 per pupil and has a student–teacher ratio of 10.0 — lower than all of those comparison schools — so class size and funding do not appear to be the constraint. Achievement also drops steeply by grade: 6th graders match or exceed district levels, while 8th grade math (8.14%) falls far below both the district and Keith Middle School (20.63%). Some groups do comparatively well — English Language Learners ranked at the 47th percentile in 2025–26, and students experiencing homelessness reached the 62nd percentile (3 stars) in 2024–25 — while the school overall has remained in the bottom tier for a decade.