Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 97123

Zip code 97123 in Hillsboro is served by two middle schools — South Meadows Middle School and R A Brown Middle School — both part of Hillsboro School District 1J and both serving grades 7–8, with a combined enrollment of 1,349 students. The district ranks 69th of 141 in Oregon, at the 51st percentile with 3 stars, placing it near the middle of the state. Both schools serve high-poverty populations, with free/reduced lunch at 70.69% at South Meadows and 67.69% at R A Brown. Both also spend well above average per student — $19,041 and $18,245 respectively — and have nearly identical student-teacher ratios of 20.4 and 20.6.

R A Brown Middle School is the academic standout, ranking 176th of 371 schools at the 53rd percentile with 3 stars. Its all-grades ELA proficiency of 44.2% is above both the district (38.8%) and the state (43.8%), and its 7th-grade results are strong at 48.7% in ELA and 35.2% in math, both above district and state. Math all-grades (30.3%) is slightly above the district but below the state, and science remains a relative weakness at 23.9%. R A Brown has held 3 stars for all three reported years, though its percentile slipped from 67 to 64 to 53.

South Meadows Middle School ranks 290th of 371 at the 22nd percentile with 1 star and falls below district and state in every reported subject and grade level. It trails R A Brown by 13.1 points in ELA, 7.9 in math, and 10.4 in science. Its relative strengths are non-academic: chronic absenteeism of 31.6% is better than the district (31.8%), the state (33.5%), and R A Brown (32.4%), and it has a slightly smaller student-teacher ratio and spends $796 more per student. Both schools are weaker in science and in 8th grade than in 7th, and both have declined in state percentile over three years.