Middle Schools in Spokane School District

This analysis covers nine public middle schools (grades 6-8) serving 5,797 students within the Spokane School District in Washington, revealing a district with extreme performance variations where a school's socioeconomic profile is a strong predictor of its state ranking.

Sacajawea Middle School is the district's top performer, ranking in the 86th percentile statewide with the highest test scores, while Carla Peperzak Middle School is a strong second. In contrast, Shaw Middle School and Denny Yasuhara Middle School rank in the bottom 10% of the state, with proficiency rates less than half of the top schools. A notable success story is Pauline Flett Middle School, which showed dramatic year-over-year improvement in its state rank.

Key findings show a stark correlation between lower poverty rates (measured by free/reduced lunch) and higher academic performance, and a surprising inverse relationship where higher-performing schools often have lower per-student spending. The district's overall average ranking masks these severe internal disparities, indicating that while some schools excel, others face significant challenges in raising student achievement despite higher levels of funding.