Zillah Middle School, Zillah WA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Zillah Middle School

Zillah Middle School serves grades six through eight as part of the Zillah School District, a small rural district in the heart of the Yakima Valley. The school sits in the town of Zillah, an agricultural community surrounded by orchards and vineyards, with a growing wine tourism sector. The town is compact, centered on First Avenue, and is fundamentally a rural highway-adjacent place on Interstate 82 rather than a dense walkable town. The district itself covers a modest area and includes four schools: an elementary, an intermediate school, this middle school, and the high school.

The student body is diverse and predominantly low-income. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The majority of students are Hispanic, roughly a third are white, and smaller groups identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and as two or more races. The school serves as a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.

Academically, Zillah Middle School shows a mixed picture based on state assessment results from the most recent testing year. In English language arts, proficiency across the three grades is moderate, with the eighth grade performing notably higher than the sixth and seventh grades. In math, proficiency is lower overall, with the sixth grade showing a particular soft spot. Science results, available only for eighth graders, are comparable to the lower end of the math results. The school’s overall proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades places it above the midpoint among the school districts in Yakima County, a useful point of reference given that the county includes both more rural and more urban areas. Because only a single year of assessment data is available for this school, there is no trend information to indicate whether performance is improving or declining.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate reported. Information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, and staffing was not available in the data provided. A parent interested in those areas would need to follow up directly with the school or district.

The district itself, according to publicly reported information, has not experienced any major recent changes that are widely documented. The community context is one of gradual evolution: Zillah saw considerable population growth in earlier decades, partly driven by an expanding Hispanic population, but that pace slowed in the 2010s. The local economy remains anchored in agriculture, with wineries and hospitality playing a growing role. Housing values in the area are moderate relative to the state as a whole, reflecting the rural setting.

For a family considering Zillah Middle School, the strongest takeaway is that it sits in a small, tight-knit community with a clear agricultural identity. The student body is largely low-income and Hispanic, and the school’s proficiency results are mixed: ELA performance is a relative bright spot, especially for eighth graders, while math and science results are areas where a parent may want to ask the school about support strategies and interventions. The school’s overall academic standing is above the middle of the pack when measured against other districts in Yakima County, which suggests it is not an outlier for weakness but also not among the top performers. Because the data is thin in areas like discipline and attendance, a thorough conversation with the school administration would be important for any family weighing enrollment.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 736%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

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

English language arts

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 39%

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

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 55%

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

Science

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolZillah 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 6Lower-income32%Higher-income56%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income64%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income49%Higher-income67%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income48%30 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income28%Higher-income64%36 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income49%14 pp gap