Goldendale Middle School

Goldendale Middle School is a public school serving 255 students in grades 5–8 in the Goldendale, Washington area, and is part of the Goldendale School District. The school serves a high-need student population: 68.24% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024–25. Its latest statewide ranking was 428th out of 514 Washington schools, placing it in the 17th percentile—an improvement from the 3rd percentile in 2023–24, but still below most schools statewide.

Academic performance remains below both district and state levels. In 2025–26, 29.82% of students were proficient in English language arts, 17.90% in math, and 30.16% in science. Math is the clearest area of concern, with proficiency ranging from 8.33% in 5th grade to 26% in 6th grade; the 8th-grade rate was 16.67%, raising questions about preparation for high school math. ELA results improved by grade, from 20% proficiency in 5th grade to 34.85% in 8th grade, but each grade remained below its statewide comparison. Science was stronger than math but still trailed the state, at 30.16% compared with 50.95% statewide.

The recent improvement in ranking and the recovery from particularly weak 2023–24 results are encouraging, although results have not returned consistently to earlier levels. The school’s performance was 4.48 percentage points below its district in ELA, 4.75 points below in math, and 8.79 points below in science. Per-student spending rose to $23,258 in 2023–24, while the student-teacher ratio increased to 19.3 in 2024–25; families may reasonably want to understand how resources and staffing support interventions, especially in math. There are no other schools within 20 miles in the provided data, so direct nearby-school comparisons are not available.