Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 98366

ZIP code 98366 in Port Orchard, Washington is home to three middle schools serving grades 6–8 — John Sedgwick Middle School, Cedar Heights Middle School, and Marcus Whitman Middle School — all part of South Kitsap School District and enrolling 2,043 students combined.

Two of the three schools perform above both the district and the state. John Sedgwick ranks 113 of 514 middle schools statewide (78th percentile, 4 stars) and leads the group in English Language Arts (62.03%) and Math (48.26%). Cedar Heights ranks 120 of 514 (77th percentile, 4 stars), leads in Science (67.48% — 16.5 points above the state), and is the only school here improving in rank, climbing from 152 to 120 over three years. Both clear state averages in every grade-level result reported. Marcus Whitman is the sharp outlier: 403 of 514 (22nd percentile, 1 star, in all three years on record), with the lowest ELA (35.35%), Math (20.88%), and Science (40.41%) results and performance below district and state in every reported grade and subject. The top-to-bottom gap is about 27 points in ELA and Math and 23 points in Science.

Math is the shared weakness — every school trails its own ELA result, and the between-school gap is widest there, with Marcus Whitman 22.23 points below the state. Science is the standout strength at the top two schools, which also both improved sharply in Science year over year (+10.7 and +16.5 points) even as ELA and Math slipped slightly. Notably, the usual resource measures run backwards: Marcus Whitman spends the most per student ($20,385) and has the smallest classes (14.9:1) yet the lowest results, while Cedar Heights spends the least ($17,372) with the largest classes (18.3:1) and outperforms. Marcus Whitman also has the highest free/reduced lunch rate (59.87%), and three of its 5th grade values are suppressed by the state — unknown, not zero.