Summary:
Newark City Schools operates three middle schools — Liberty Middle School, Heritage Middle School, and Wilson Middle School — all serving grades 6–8 in Newark, Ohio, with a combined enrollment of 1,261 students.
Liberty Middle School is the clear academic standout: it is the only one of the three above the state average in all eight tested metrics, the only one rated 3 stars, and it has the lowest chronic absenteeism at 24.5%, below the district rate of 28.0%. Heritage Middle School sits at the opposite end — 1 star, 29th percentile, and 46.2% chronic absenteeism, nearly one in two students and 1.65 times the district rate. Its Algebra I End-of-Course proficiency of 95.5% is a genuine bright spot, but its 6th-grade ELA result of 30.8% is the lowest single figure in the group. Wilson Middle School lands in the middle (2 stars, 38th percentile) but is by far the most volatile, with 6th-grade Math up 29.3 points and 6th-grade ELA up 16.4 points year over year, while 8th-grade Math fell 14.1 points.
Two patterns cut across all three schools. First, 8th-grade Science and Math declined everywhere, while 6th-grade Math rose everywhere — a systemic shift rather than a building-level one. Second, absenteeism tracks achievement closely: the school with the lowest absenteeism posts the highest scores, and the reverse holds too. One caution on the very high Algebra I scores (93.3%–100%, against a district figure of 59.5%): they most likely reflect a small, selectively enrolled accelerated class, not the general 8th-grade population. Free/reduced lunch percentages are not reported for any of these three schools.
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