Summary:
Murray, Utah, has two public middle schools serving grades 7–9, both part of the Murray District. The schools are Hillcrest Junior High and Riverview Junior High. They are similar in size, with 696 students at Hillcrest and 614 at Riverview, and both offer a traditional middle-school grade span. The district ranks 54th among Utah’s 92 districts. Overall, Riverview is the stronger-performing school in the available 2025–26 data, although Hillcrest has made broad academic improvements and has several notable areas of strength.
Riverview Junior High ranks 106th of 217 Utah schools, placing it in the 51st percentile with a three-star rating; Hillcrest Junior High ranks 128th, in the 41st percentile, with two stars. Riverview also has substantially lower chronic absenteeism—13.1%, compared with 35.0% at Hillcrest—and a higher average across the reported current-year assessments, about 46.0% versus 43.9%. Riverview leads Hillcrest in seven of nine subject-grade comparisons, with especially strong 8th-grade results in English language arts and mathematics and a 54.5% 9th-grade English language arts proficiency rate. Its main concern is that 7th- and 8th-grade mathematics and science scores declined from the previous year.
Hillcrest Junior High shows encouraging year-over-year improvement in every repeated assessment. Its strongest current results are 9th-grade science at 57.2%, the highest individual score for either school, and 9th-grade mathematics at 45.8%. Hillcrest also leads Riverview in 7th-grade mathematics and 9th-grade mathematics, but its 8th-grade mathematics result of 34.7% is a key area for improvement. Families should also note that Hillcrest serves a larger share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, while the schools have nearly identical student-teacher ratios. For parents comparing the two schools, Riverview offers stronger overall outcomes and attendance, while Hillcrest presents evidence of academic momentum and particular strength in upper-grade mathematics and science.
Thank you for your feedback!