Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 97136

ZIP code 97136, which covers Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast, is home to exactly one middle school: Neah-Kah-Nie Middle School. It serves grades 6–8 with 163 students — roughly 54 per grade — and belongs to Neah-Kah-Nie School District 56. With only one school in the area, there is no local comparison to make, so the meaningful benchmark is how this school stacks up against its district and against Oregon as a whole.

Academically, the school performs above the state on all three tested subjects. Science is its standout strength: 60.7% of students met the proficiency standard versus 30.6% statewide, about double the state rate, and in 8th grade specifically that gap widens to 60.7% against 27.7%. English language arts is also solid and unusually even, at 57.6% overall versus 43.8% for the state — a 14-to-15 point advantage in each of grades 6, 7, and 8, with results holding in a narrow 55.6%–60.6% band. Mathematics is the clear soft spot. At 36.7%, it beats the state (32.9%) by only 3.8 points, and it is the one subject where the school trails its own district (38.5%). Sixth-grade math sits essentially at state parity — 29.8% versus 29.7%. Statewide, the school has ranked in the 79th–85th percentile of Oregon middle schools in each of the last three years, earning a 4-star rating every year; in 2025-26 it placed 67th of 371 middle schools.

Two context points matter for families. First, chronic absenteeism is high at 45.5%, above both the district (37.7%) and the state (33.5%) — nearly half of students miss enough school to be classified chronically absent, which is the one measure where the school sits on the wrong side of both benchmarks. Second, the school is small and serves a high-poverty population: 76.69% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the student–teacher ratio is a low 11.4 to 1, and per-student spending is $26,666. In short, this is a consistently strong, science-heavy school with reliable reading results, real room to grow in math, and an attendance challenge worth watching.