Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 97351

ZIP code 97351 in Independence, Oregon, is served by exactly one public middle school — Talmadge Middle School — a grades 6–8 campus with 716 students in Central School District 13J. Because it is the only middle school in the ZIP, there is no in-area comparison to make: Talmadge's results are the area's results, so the most useful benchmarks are the school's own district and the state of Oregon.

Academically, Talmadge ranked 275th of 371 Oregon middle schools in 2025-26 (26th percentile, 1 star), up from 290th of 371 (22nd percentile) two years earlier — a real but modest climb. On state tests that year, 34.5% of students met the standard in English language arts, 19.8% in math, and 18.1% in science, against state rates of 43.8%, 32.9%, and 30.6%. That leaves the school about 9 points behind the state in ELA but roughly 13 points behind in math and science, so reading and writing are the relative strengths. By grade, ELA was highest in 7th grade (40.7%) and lowest in 8th (29.1%); math tracked the same shape (23.0% in 7th, 16.2% in 8th). Science is tested only in 8th grade, so that single cohort carries the entire science result.

Context matters here. About 94.55% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, per-student spending is $18,410, and the student-teacher ratio is roughly 18.8 to 1. Chronic absenteeism — missing enough school to be flagged — affects 34.9% of students, better than the district's 37.4% but slightly above the state's 33.5%. The same pattern repeats across nearly every measure: Talmadge outperforms its own low-ranked district (120th of 141) but trails the state, and its three-year trend is improving without yet changing its one-star overall standing.