Summary:
ZIP code 97106 is home to one middle school: Banks Middle School, a grades 6–8 school with 254 students in Banks School District 13. Because it is the only middle school in the area, there are no local peers to compare it against; the useful benchmarks are the district, the state, and the school's own trend over time. The school serves a high-need population: 74.8% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the student-teacher ratio is 17.8:1, and per-student spending is $15,770.
Academically, the school trails both district and state in all three tested subjects. In 2025–2026, English Language Arts proficiency was 31.6% versus 43.8% statewide, math was 23.5% versus 32.9%, and science was 10.5% versus 30.6% — a gap of more than 20 points. Science is the clearest red flag. Eighth grade is the weakest grade level overall, with ELA at 20.8% against 41.5% statewide and math at 19.4% against 30.0%. Rank history reflects these struggles: the school slipped from 2 stars and the 41st percentile in 2023–2024 to 1 star in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, sitting at the 25th percentile most recently.
There are bright spots. Seventh grade ELA proficiency was 43.7%, only 1.6 points below the state's 45.3%, and sixth grade math was 26.9%, just 2.8 points off the state. Chronic absenteeism was 29.4%, better than the district's 30.1% and the state's 33.5%, though nearly three in ten students are still chronically absent. Notably, the district is rated 4 stars and ranked at the 72nd percentile, while the middle school itself remains at 1 star — a striking gap that suggests the district's overall profile is carried by other schools. With roughly 80–85 students per grade, results can swing year to year.
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