Northampton Middle

Northampton Middle is a small, rural school in Eastville, VA, serving just 214 students in grades 7–8 as part of Northampton County Public Schools. Nearly all students — about 99.5% — qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the highest-poverty schools in Virginia. Despite that, the school has been climbing steadily: after ranking in the bottom 10% of Virginia middle schools for several years, Northampton Middle now sits in the 23rd percentile with a 1-star rating.

The most impressive story is in the details. English Learners at Northampton Middle have ranked in the top 6–12 schools statewide for three straight years — landing 6th out of 134 schools in the most recent year. Every 8th grader taking Algebra I has scored proficient for three years running, outperforming the state average of 93%. On-grade-level 8th grade math jumped from just 2.9% proficient in 2022–2023 to 49.1% — now above the state average. Chronic absenteeism has been cut by more than half, from 36.6% to 13.7%, which is below the state average. Eighth grade reading (68.4%) and science (54.4%) have also improved substantially.

That said, not everything is there yet. Seventh grade reading (58.8% vs. 73% statewide) and 7th grade math (41.7% vs. 51.1% statewide) remain weak spots, and science still trails the state by roughly 10 points. Most student subgroups are improving, with African American, low-income, and female students all making significant percentile gains. While the school still faces real challenges, the direction is clear: Northampton Middle is in the middle of a genuine turnaround, and its work with multilingual learners stands out as a model for other high-poverty schools.