Somerset 6/7 Intermediate School

Somerset 6/7 Intermediate School in Westover, MD, serves 389 students in grades 6 and 7 and is part of the Somerset County Public Schools district, which is ranked 23rd out of 25 districts in Maryland.

The school faces significant challenges, particularly in mathematics, where only 8.3% of students were proficient in the 2025-2026 school year—the lowest rate among nearby schools. For comparison, Snow Hill Middle achieved 46.5% proficiency in math, and even Wicomico Middle reached 10.8%. Chronic absenteeism is also a critical issue, with 37.0% of students chronically absent, more than double the rate at Bennett Middle (24.5%) and nearly triple that of Snow Hill Middle (12.9%). Despite these struggles, there is a bright spot in 7th-grade English Language Arts, where 40.4% of students were proficient—higher than Wicomico Middle (33.3%) and comparable to Bennett Middle (41.8%). The school spends $23,789 per student, which is higher than most nearby schools, yet academic outcomes remain low, highlighting a need for more effective resource use.

Interestingly, the school’s performance in ELA is not as dire as its math scores, suggesting that some literacy interventions may be working and could be replicated for math instruction. The school has also shown improvement, moving from the 16th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 26th percentile in 2025-2026, and chronic absenteeism has dropped from 45.4% to 37.0% in one year. This upward trend, combined with the stark contrast to nearby schools in the higher-ranked Worcester County Public Schools district—which serve similar poverty levels but achieve much higher proficiency—suggests that district-level support and instructional strategies play a crucial role in overcoming challenges.