The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Social studies. The lowest is 71% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Howland Middle School
Howland Middle School serves students in grades five through eight and draws from a suburban township setting near Warren, Ohio. The school has an enrollment of about seven hundred students, with roughly half qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a mixed-income community. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller populations of students identifying as Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and Black.
On Ohio's State Tests, Howland Middle achieved proficiency rates in the low-to-mid-70s across tested subjects. In English language arts, the rate stood at about seventy-two percent; in math, about seventy-one percent; in science, about seventy-three percent. These results place the school above the midpoint among districts across Trumbull County in overall proficiency. The school maintains strong test participation, with nearly all students taking assessments in reading and writing and all students taking science.
The academic profile reflects solid middle-grades performance without outsized strength or weakness. State test scores alone do not capture program depth, but the data available suggests a school meeting the baseline expectations for proficiency rather than standing out as an exceptional performer. A parent might ask the school directly about curriculum scope in each subject, special programs, and how advanced and struggling learners are served.
Howland Local Schools, the parent district, has taken concrete steps to stabilize operations. In November 2024, voters renewed an emergency operating levy, locking in funding through the mid-2030s without a new tax increase. This removes near-term pressure to cut programs or staffing. The district is also advancing plans for a new Fine and Performing Arts Center with a sizable auditorium attached to the high school, a facility the district has lacked since an earlier auditorium was demolished in the early 1990s. Howland Township has placed two full-time school resource officers in the schools as a staffing and safety investment.
Warren, the nearby county seat, sits along the Mahoning River and is anchored by a historic downtown built around Courthouse Square. The city has experienced decades of population and economic decline tied to deindustrialization, but is now in active redevelopment. A transformational Kimberly-Clark advanced manufacturing plant is under construction on a former steel mill site, expected to create several hundred jobs by 2030. A mixed-use riverfront project called the Peninsula is also moving forward, planned to add residential units, office space, and hospitality near downtown and connect to the five-mile Mahoning River Riverwalk. Housing values in the Warren area are modest, with median home prices well below state and national benchmarks. Rental housing is similarly affordable.
Howland itself is a suburban township with neighborhood schools rather than a downtown campus presence. The middle school serves students from this outlying setting, with no alternative pathways, specialized programs, or magnet designation noted in available data. For families, Howland Middle represents a traditional public middle school in a stable district with renewed funding, solid baseline test performance, and active cultural investment, set in an economically recovering community where housing remains accessible.
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