Middle Schools in Carteret Public School District

Carteret Middle School serves grades 5–6 and Carteret Junior High School serves grades 7–8 in Carteret Public School District. Together, they offer families two consecutive stages of middle-level education, with similar enrollment: 540 students at Middle and 568 at Junior High. The central finding is that in 2025–2026, every reported grade-level ELA, mathematics and science result at both schools was below the matching state result.

Carteret Junior High School stands out positively for end-of-course math, especially Algebra I: 60% were proficient in 2025–2026, about 20 percentage points above the state’s 40%; the previous year, its 82% result was 44 points above the state. Its end-of-course Geometry result was also above the state, 59% versus 52%. However, those results contrast with weaker grade-level math comparisons: grade 7 Algebra I was 68%, 25 points below the state, and grade 8 was 54%, 20 points below. Grade 8 Geometry was 59%, 28 points below the state. Across grade-level subjects, the largest shortfalls included Carteret Middle School grade 5 science, 6% versus 27% statewide, and Junior High grade 7 mathematics, 18% versus 38%. These results point to subject- and course-specific strengths, not an overall school ranking.

Recent grade-level averages show little change in ELA’s position relative to the state: the four-grade gap was about 12 points below in both 2024–2025 and 2025–2026. Mathematics remained about 16 points below, while the two reported science grades fell from an average gap of 10 points to 16 points below. Within grades, Junior High grade 7 ELA improved by 9 points, while Middle grade 6 ELA fell by 15 points; both reported science results also declined. SchoolDigger’s Junior High ranking percentile moved from 34 in 2023–2024 to 29 in 2025–2026, and its rating changed from two stars to one; Middle’s supplied ranking history is not recent and continuous. For 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 78% at Junior High and 80% at Middle; student-teacher ratios were 12.9 and 11.1, respectively. Because the schools serve different grades, their scores are not direct school-to-school comparisons.