Sadie Halstead Middle School, Newport WA

Original Research by School Decision on Sadie Halstead Middle School

Sadie Halstead Middle School serves the town of Newport and the surrounding rural area of Pend Oreille County, at the far northeastern corner of Washington along the Idaho border. The school is a conventional public middle school for grades five through eight, and it is the middle school for the Newport School District.

Newport is a small county-seat town, historically rooted in timber and mining, that functions as a service center for the surrounding countryside. It is a compact community. School and civic buildings sit within its modest footprint. The district is pursuing a replacement Educational Programs & Operations levy for the coming years, set at a lower rate than the one voters previously approved, which would fund core operations and directly affect local property taxes.

The student body at Sadie Halstead is mostly White, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker that the school serves a population with significant economic need.

State test results show a clear pattern. In English language arts, the share of students meeting the state standard sits below the midpoint of the district's comparison set, which is the very small set of districts within Pend Oreille County. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades falls in the bottom quarter of that same three-district county group. In math, proficiency rates are lower across all grade levels, with a declining pattern from fifth through eighth grade. Fifth graders are the strongest group in both subjects. The eighth-grade cohort shows the weakest performance, particularly in math and reading. In science, the fifth-grade results are notably stronger than the eighth-grade results.

There is no multi-year trend data available, so it is not possible to see whether performance is improving or declining. The data represents a single snapshot from the most recent testing year. A parent may want to ask the school about how current students are tracking compared to prior cohorts, since only one year of data is available.

Because Sadie Halstead is a middle school with no high school grades, a graduation rate does not apply and is not listed.

The school environment data, including discipline, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism, is absent from the available information. These are meaningful dimensions of how a school operates day to day, and their absence means a parent considering this school would want to ask directly about these topics. Course access information, such as whether there are advanced or elective options at the middle school level, is also missing.

What is available paints a picture of a school in a small, rural district with limited comparative resources. The academic results suggest that the middle grades are a challenging point for many students, particularly in math. For a parent, the core question may be how the school supports students who arrive below grade level and what academic interventions are in place, since the proficiency data indicates that a majority of students in most tested grades and subjects are not yet meeting the state standard. The school's website and the district office would be the next place to ask about those supports.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 31% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 30% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 21% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 55% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 38% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 35% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Science

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 55% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 836%

School 36% · District 33% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

This schoolNewport 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 4Lower-income49%Higher-income61%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income71%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income61%31 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income56%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income32%Higher-income35%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income18%Higher-income44%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income67%43 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income44%15 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income14%Higher-income44%31 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income21%Higher-income22%1 pp gap