Northwood Middle School, Spokane WA

Original Research by School Decision on Northwood Middle School

Northwood Middle School serves sixth through eighth graders in the Mead School District on the north side of Spokane. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. The school sits within a larger district that voters recently supported with a replacement Educational Programs and Operations levy, which funds staff, curriculum, athletics, and extracurriculars through 2027, a sign of stable local investment.

Academically, Northwood’s performance on Washington’s state assessments positions it above the midpoint among middle schools across Spokane County districts, according to a composite proficiency index that averages all tested subjects and grades. In English language arts, proficiency rates across the three grade levels are in a range where most students meet the standard, while math runs lower, and eighth-grade science falls below the halfway mark. Because this is the only year of testing data available, there is no way to see whether performance is improving or slipping, a gap a parent may want to ask the school about directly. The school has no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report; that is typical for a middle school.

The student body is large for its grade band, with enrollment spread roughly evenly across grades six, seven, and eight. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a mix of household incomes in the attendance zone. Racially, the school is predominantly White, with smaller shares of Hispanic students and students of two or more races, and very small numbers of Asian, Black, Native American, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the record; a parent may want to ask the school for those counts to understand the full support landscape.

Spokane is the economic and cultural center of the Inland Northwest and the second-largest city in Washington. Its economy, historically tied to mining, timber, and agriculture, has diversified into healthcare, government, education, and logistics, with employers like Fairchild Air Force Base, Providence Health Care, Amazon, and Spokane Public Schools among the largest. The city has a genuine downtown core along the Spokane River, with Riverfront Park, a historic theater district, and Gonzaga University nearby. Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared to western Washington, though prices have risen in recent years. The neighborhood around Northwood is in north Spokane, a mostly residential area that feeds into Mead School District’s high schools.

A parent considering Northwood Middle School can expect a large public school with academic results that are solid in reading and writing, slightly weaker in math and science relative to that same standard, and overall in the upper half of the county’s middle schools. The school has a single year of test data, so a trend is impossible to judge. The student body is economically mixed and racially homogenous, which may matter to families seeking a certain kind of peer environment. There is no publicly available information on discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, or course access like advanced or remedial offerings, so a family should visit or request a school profile to fill in those blanks. The district’s recent levy passage suggests ongoing operational stability, and the broader city provides the amenities of a mid-sized urban center without the high cost of Seattle or Portland.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 642%

School 42% · District 27% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 751%

School 51% · District 48% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 36% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 655%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 763%

School 63% · District 27% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 868%

School 68% · District 27% · ▲ 41 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 47% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolMead 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-income47%Higher-income72%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income66%28 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income46%Higher-income73%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income51%Higher-income78%27 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income15%Higher-income54%39 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income53%30 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income31%Higher-income62%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income51%17 pp gap