Forest Meadow J H, Dallas TX - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Forest Meadow J H

Forest Meadow Junior High serves grades seven and eight in Richardson, a Dallas suburb, and opened as a middle school in the 2024-25 school year. The school holds just under seven hundred students, about two-thirds of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is racially mixed, with no single group forming a majority: Black students make up roughly a third, Hispanic students roughly a third, white students roughly a quarter, and Asian students roughly one-tenth.

The school's state assessment results from 2024-25 show proficiency rates in the lower range. In English language arts, results improve by grade: sixth grade sits at under two-fifths proficient, seventh at roughly two-fifths, and eighth at just under one-half. In math, the trend reverses and declines steeply. Sixth grade starts at just over two-fifths above the passing threshold, but eighth grade drops to only one-fifth proficient. Science and social studies, assessed only in eighth grade, show even lower proficiency, each at roughly one-quarter of students meeting grade-level standards. A parent may want to look into the school's specific intervention and support structures for math, where proficiency narrows significantly as students move from sixth to eighth grade.

The school sits in Richardson, a city north of Dallas with an economy anchored by corporate offices, technology, and manufacturing, including major employers in telecommunications and semiconductors. The neighborhood around the school is residential, with housing values showing a slight year-over-year decline from a year earlier, though prices remain in the moderate-to-mid range for the metro. Rental costs are similarly moderate.

Richardson ISD is in the middle of a district-wide transition from a junior-high to a middle-school model, moving sixth grade from elementary schools into middle schools serving grades six through eight. Forest Meadow was one of the first two campuses to open under this new model. The district voted to approve a substantial bond package in late 2025 that includes funding for a new Career and Technical Education Center serving all four high schools, district-wide technology device replacement, middle school completion, and stadium upgrades. This bond and accompanying tax-rate increase represent a significant, lasting commitment to facilities and programs that families considering a move to the district would be taking on.

The state assessment data provided does not break down results by subgroups such as English learners or students with IEPs, so a family may want to ask the school directly about outcomes for those populations. The data also does not include the chronic absenteeism rate or other school climate indicators that round out a full picture of the learning environment.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 47% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 36% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 56% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 57% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 59% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Science

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 49% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 36% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolRICHARDSON ISD, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income65%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income30%Higher-income68%38 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income73%40 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income54%36 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income2%Higher-income8%6 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income12%Higher-income45%33 pp gap