Summary:
Zip code 22205 in Arlington, Virginia is served by just one public middle school: Swanson Middle, which educates students in grades 6 through 8. This school is part of Arlington County Public Schools, a well-regarded district ranked 26th out of 131 in Virginia, and it consistently earns 4 stars from SchoolDigger, placing in the top quarter of all middle schools statewide.
Swanson Middle posts strong academic results across most subjects, beating Virginia state averages in reading, science, civics, and advanced math. In 2025–26, its students achieved 100% proficiency in both 7th-grade Algebra I and 8th-grade Geometry, while 8th-grade Algebra I proficiency reached 98.28%. Science and civics proficiency were also impressive, coming in at 80.48% and 83.28% respectively—roughly 16 and 13 points above the state average. Reading performance is solid as well, with 6th and 8th grade reading proficiency near or above 85%. The one notable soft spot is 7th-grade general math, where only 35.78% of students were proficient in 2025–26, a drop from the prior year and well below the state average of 51.11%. However, this likely reflects that many advanced 7th graders take Algebra I instead, leaving the general math test to a smaller, less advanced subgroup.
Beyond test scores, Swanson benefits from a very engaged student body. Its chronic absenteeism rate is just 8.4%, far better than the district rate of 12.1% and the state rate of 14.8%. The school also enjoys substantial resources, with per-student spending of $13,989 and a student-teacher ratio of 14.1. Only about 19.94% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating a relatively low-poverty population. Overall, Swanson Middle is a high-performing, well-supported school with particular strengths in advanced math, science, civics, and reading, and its main area for improvement is 7th-grade general math proficiency.
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