Summary:
ZIP code 45652 in Mc Dermott, Ohio is home to exactly one middle school: Northwest Middle School, part of the Northwest Local district. It serves grades 6 through 8 with about 247 students — roughly 82 per grade — and a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.7 to 1 for 2024‑25. Because it is the only middle school in the area, families can't compare it to a local peer. Instead, the useful comparison is against Ohio statewide averages.
The school's clearest strengths are in advanced math and 8th grade science. Algebra I End-of-Course proficiency reached 91.3% in 2025‑26 and 100% in 2024‑25, far above the state's 61.6% and 59.4%. Science in 8th grade also beat the state in both years, by 7.3 points in 2025‑26 and 25.0 points in 2024‑25. The trade-off is grade-level math, where 8th grade came in at 33.3% (state: 52.0%) and 6th grade at 39.5% (state: 56.2%). Most likely, the strongest math students are placed into Algebra I, leaving the general grade-level test to a group with more struggling learners.
English Language Arts is the most consistent soft spot — the school fell below the state at nearly every grade level in both years, averaging 51.9 in 2025‑26 versus the state's 59.0. Chronic absenteeism is another real concern at 29.3%, well above the district's own 21.4%, and the school's rating slipped from 488 (53rd percentile, 3 stars) to 607 (42nd percentile, 2 stars) after a very strong 8th grade class moved on to high school. One cohort improved markedly from 6th to 7th grade, while the other lost ground in math, so the next year of data will matter.
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