Heatherwood Middle School, Mill Creek WA

Original Research by School Decision on Heatherwood Middle School

Heatherwood Middle School, in the Everett School District, is a regular public school serving grades six through eight in Mill Creek, a planned community that dates to the 1970s and ranks among the wealthier suburbs of the Seattle metro area. The school sits in a city with a dense network of parks and trails, a bus rapid transit line along State Route 527, and a future light rail extension to Everett that will stop at Ash Way and Mariner Park and Ride, both near Mill Creek. The immediate housing market in the zip code carries a value well above the state benchmark; rents have been climbing slightly, while home values have dipped a bit from recent peaks.

The school's academic profile is a clear strength. On the Washington state assessments, proficiency rates are robust across all three middle grades. In English language arts, the share scoring proficient runs comfortably above the majority mark in every grade. Math proficiency is also strong, with a modest dip in eighth grade but still well over half of students meeting the bar. Science results for eighth graders place proficiency at roughly the same level as the school’s overall math performance. When placed against all middle schools across Snohomish County, Heatherwood’s composite proficiency index sits in the top quartile, a position that makes it one of the higher-performing schools in the county on this measure.

The enrollment is moderately sized for a 6–8 school, with a fairly even split across the three grades. The student body is racially and economically diverse. About two out of five students are white, while roughly one in four are Asian, and a substantial share are Hispanic. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure that is modest in absolute terms but notable in an affluent suburb. Data on special education identification and English learner status was not available; parents who want to understand how those populations are served should check directly with the school.

Mill Creek itself grew out of a planned country club community and has extended through annexation, with a downtown town center that opened in the 2000s and is now the city’s primary commercial and civic node. The city is currently planning a South Town Center subarea for additional mixed-use development. The Everett School District, which operates Heatherwood, has had some recent changes of note to its families. Voters passed a replacement operations levy in April 2024 that funds teachers, special education, athletics, music, and arts, after a February 2024 version failed narrowly. A separate bond for school construction and facility improvements passed in November 2022, after an earlier bond failed. The district has implemented high school boundary changes in phases since 2020 and approved elementary boundary changes for the 2025-26 school year to address uneven enrollment across schools.

For a family considering this school, the academic performance is the headline strength: students here generally score at levels that place the school among the higher-performing middle schools in the county. The student body is mixed both economically and racially, which not every affluent suburban school can say. The housing market in Mill Creek is expensive, and the surrounding community offers the kind of recreational and transport amenities that appeal to commuters to Everett, Lynnwood, Bellevue, and Seattle. The district boundary changes are worth a look for families with children at multiple grade levels, as they have touched both elementary and high school attendance areas. There is no graduation rate to report for a middle school, and no chronic absenteeism data was available to review.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 23% · ▲ 42 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 54% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 860%

School 60% · District 50% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 673%

School 73% · District 65% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 66% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 874%

School 74% · District 62% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Science

Grade 865%

School 65% · District 58% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

This schoolEverett School District, 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 5Lower-income39%Higher-income82%43 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income53%Higher-income82%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income47%Higher-income86%39 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income54%Higher-income84%30 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income62%41 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income45%Higher-income74%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income78%41 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income70%32 pp gap