Poe Middle

Poe Middle School is a grades 6–8 middle school in Annandale, VA, serving 879 students in Fairfax County Public Schools. Despite sitting in one of Virginia's strongest districts, Poe ranks in the 4th percentile statewide (398th of 416 middle schools), and about 77% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — a poverty rate far above nearby schools like Frost Middle (15.9%) and Irving Middle (15.6%).

Academically, Poe's SOL proficiency rates trail both the district and state by wide margins. In 6th-grade math, just 28.7% of Poe students were proficient versus 69.3% districtwide; by 8th grade, math proficiency falls to 11.2%. Reading scores are stronger but still show roughly half of students missing state benchmarks — 48–52% proficient across grades 6–8, compared to a district average around 80%. Science is Poe's least weak subject, with 53.1% proficiency in 8th grade, but it still lags the district by 21 points. There is one clear bright spot: students placed in accelerated Algebra I performed very well, with 7th graders at 100% proficiency. But the majority of students in standard on-grade math are far behind.

What makes this especially striking is that Poe spends more per student ($15,516) than any nearby school — well above Frost ($11,768) and Irving ($10,188) — and has a lower student-teacher ratio (11.9) than those higher-performing schools. Similar high-poverty peers like Glasgow Middle (85.8% poverty) and Holmes Middle post better reading results in several grades while spending less. Poe's chronic absenteeism has improved sharply, from 26.3% in 2022–23 to 14.5% in 2024–25, slightly below the state average. Still, the school's state ranking has declined steadily over the past decade, suggesting that additional resources alone haven't reversed the trend.