The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in Science. The lowest is 32% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Schoenbar Middle School
Schoenbar Middle School sits on Schoenbar Road in Ketchikan, serving seventh and eighth graders in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District. It is a two-year bridging school, the kind of place where students pass through briefly on their way from elementary to high school, and the enrollment is balanced evenly across the two grades. The school draws from a community shaped by its isolation: Ketchikan is reachable only by sea and air, built along a narrow waterfront hemmed in by steep, forested terrain. Government services, commercial fishing, and a large seasonal tourism economy anchored by cruise traffic form the backbone of local employment. The surrounding borough stretches north and south along the Tongass Highway, with small rural settlements reachable mostly by water.
The student body reflects the region's character. A slight majority of students identify as white, and a substantial quarter identify as Alaska Native. Smaller groups identify as Asian, two or more races, Hispanic, and Black. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not reported, so those population sizes are not something a family can assess from the available profile. A parent may want to ask the school directly about those services.
On state assessments, Schoenbar's results land in a middling range. Math proficiency sits below half of tested students, and English language arts is lower still, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency. Science is the strongest subject, with proficiency approaching half. Participation rates across all three subjects were solid, with nearly all students tested. The state did not provide average scale scores, and no multi-year trend data was available, so there is no way to tell from the current data whether these proficiency levels are improving, declining, or holding steady. This is the kind of profile where a parent might want to look into how the school supports students who are not yet at proficiency, and what intervention or tutoring structures are in place. Because the school serves only seventh and eighth grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that metric does not apply here.
The district has made two moves recently that a family might find relevant. The school board approved a multi-year agreement with Sealaska Heritage Institute for the Tlingit Language Reclamation Project, a sustained effort to bring Tlingit language and culture into district curriculum. Given that a quarter of Schoenbar's students are Alaska Native, this initiative could have direct relevance in the classroom. The district also raised its local property tax mill rate for the first time in several budget cycles to generate additional revenue, a change that affects homeowners in the borough.
Housing in Ketchikan runs above both the state and national benchmarks for typical home values, and recent appreciation has been steep year over year. The price-to-income ratio sits on the higher side, and current mortgage rates make monthly carrying costs meaningful for families buying into the area. Rental data was not available, so a family relying on rentals would need to look elsewhere for that picture.
What the data shows is a small, two-year middle school in an isolated Southeast Alaska town, serving a diverse student body with a strong Alaska Native presence, operating in a district actively investing in Indigenous language and culture. Its academic results are mixed, with science outpacing math and reading, and no trend data to contextualize whether things are moving. For a family considering Schoenbar, the questions worth asking are about academic support structures, the shape of special education and English learner services, and how the Tlingit language initiative is showing up in daily classroom life.
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