The top reported proficiency rate is 15% in English language arts. The lowest is 11% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Thurgood Marshall Mid
Thurgood Marshall Middle School serves sixth through eighth grade in Lynn, a densely populated urban city that is part of Greater Boston's inner core. The school is a regular public school, and it is one of several middle schools within the Lynn Public Schools district. The student body is large for a middle school and predominantly Hispanic, with smaller shares of White, Black, and Asian students. The district data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education identification, and English learner status were not available in the source materials, so a family would want to ask the school directly what supports and programs are in place for those groups.
On the 2024-25 state assessments, Thurgood Marshall Middle School's proficiency rates in math, English language arts, science, and social studies were all in a narrow band, with a very small share of students scoring at the proficient level or above in each subject. The multi-year trend data available shows that English and math proficiency rates were higher in the years before the pandemic, but have settled notably lower in recent years. Compared with other districts in Essex County, this school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile of the comparison set, indicating that its academic outcomes are well below the median among the county's school districts.
A parent or resident looking at these results will want to consider a few things. The school is serving a very large student population in a district that has recently faced its own challenges. The district brief notes that Lynn Public Schools received a multi-year federal literacy grant in 2023, which funds coaching and new curriculum materials, so reading instruction may be an area of focus going forward. Separately, the school committee voted in 2024 to close Thurgood Marshall Middle School due to declining enrollment and facility costs, with students reassigned to other middle schools. This means the school as it currently exists is scheduled to close, and families in its attendance zone should expect their children to be reassigned to a different Lynn middle school.
The school offers no high school grade levels, so there is no graduation rate to report. The school is open and operating as of the last available data, but the closure decision is a fact that fundamentally shapes what a family considering the school should know. There is no information available on course access, discipline, staffing, or attendance patterns in the source data.
Lynn itself is a historically industrial city with a dense urban fabric, a downtown cultural district, and major employers including GE Aerospace and the school district itself. Housing in the area is relatively expensive by national standards, with home values and rents both elevated. The school sits on a single campus in the city's built-up area, not on a separate campus apart from the neighborhood. The community context is that of an older industrial city undergoing residential redevelopment, with a mix of multi-family homes and loft conversions.
For a family weighing this school, the central takeaway is that Thurgood Marshall Middle School operates with a very large enrollment and has struggled with low academic proficiency rates that place it well below the county norm. The scheduled closure is the single most important fact for any family looking at this school, because it means the current attendance zone and school assignment will not remain in place. The Lynn district's recent investments in literacy and early college pathways are district-level initiatives, but their impact at the middle school level is not something the available data speaks to directly.
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