Lewis & Clark Middle School, Yakima WA

Original Research by School Decision on Lewis & Clark Middle School

Lewis & Clark Middle School serves the Yakima School District and sits squarely within the city of Yakima, the agricultural and commercial center of the Yakima Valley. The city blends an urban civic core with its deep roots in apple, wine, and hop production, and the broader area includes unincorporated suburban pockets such as West Valley and Terrace Heights. Daily life is shaped by parks like Franklin Park and Sarg Hubbard Park, the paved pathways of the Yakima Greenway, and annual events such as the Central Washington State Fair. Yakima has seen slight population growth in recent years, and suburban expansion continues in the unincorporated areas around the city.

Lewis & Clark is a regular public school serving grades six through eight. It is not a charter school. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a smaller share of white students and very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need in the school community. Data on the share of students receiving special education services or English learner supports was not available in the source data, which is a gap a parent may want to follow up on directly with the school.

The most recent state assessment results from the Smarter Balanced tests show that proficiency rates in English language arts were below a quarter of students in sixth and seventh grade, and just above that mark in eighth grade. In math, fewer than a fifth of sixth graders and about a quarter of eighth graders met the state standard; seventh-grade math proficiency was lower than both. On the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science, which is administered in eighth grade, roughly a quarter of students scored proficient. These rates represent a single year of data, so no trend is available. When compared to other middle schools in Yakima County, Lewis & Clark's combined proficiency across tested subjects and grades falls below the midpoint among its peers. A parent may want to discuss with the school how it supports students who are below grade level and what academic interventions are in place.

The school’s parent district, Yakima School District, has received recent recognition: its school board was named the 2024 Large District School Board of the Year in Washington state. The district has expanded dual-language programs into nearly every elementary school and offers college-access initiatives that allow students to graduate high school with an associate’s degree without leaving their high school campuses. These are district-wide efforts, and while Lewis & Clark does not serve high school grades, the pipeline into those programs begins in the middle grades. A family considering Lewis & Clark should look into whether the school offers any dual-language or advanced coursework that feeds into the district's broader pathways.

Housing in the area around the school is more affordable than the Washington state median home value, and rents are also below the state benchmark by a meaningful margin. The local unemployment rate has hovered in a moderate range recently. For families moving to Yakima, the housing market offers options within reach of many household budgets, though the school's high economic-need profile may mean that school-based fundraising and parent-teacher group resources are more limited than in more affluent communities.

This is a school where academic proficiency numbers are below county averages and where the student population reflects concentrated poverty. The district has been investing in language programs and college-going infrastructure, but the middle school itself does not have data on gifted or advanced programming, course access, or disciplinary patterns – important pieces for a family trying to understand the full picture. A parent should visit the school, ask about how students who are behind are brought up to grade level, and inquire about the specific course offerings and support structures that exist in sixth through eighth grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 619%

School 19% · District 20% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 713%

School 13% · District 17% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 40% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 53% · ▼ 28 pts below district

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

Grade 725%

School 25% · District 50% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

Grade 833%

School 33% · District 35% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 27% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolYakima 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-income29%Higher-income42%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income47%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income24%Higher-income44%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income31%Higher-income52%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income5%Higher-income21%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income37%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income24%Higher-income36%12 pp gap