The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in English language arts. The lowest is 36% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Rawlins Middle School
Rawlins Middle School sits in the county seat of Carbon County, a high-desert town along Interstate 80 that grew up as a Union Pacific Railroad division point and still carries that industrial character. The Wyoming State Penitentiary, the railroad, county government, and the school district itself are among the largest employers, and the town functions as a supply hub for surrounding ranching and mining country. For a family considering this school, the setting is a low-density, semi-arid place with a grid-patterned older core along Cedar Street and Main Street, a public library branch, a city recreation center, and a paved walking trail system that threads through town and past the historic Frontier Prison grounds. Housing here is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below the Wyoming statewide figure. The town's population has been declining, and vacancy rates are elevated, which a family weighing long-term roots may want to consider.
The school serves grades six through eight and is part of Carbon County School District #1, which also operates Rawlins Elementary, Rawlins High School, and an alternative cooperative high school. Western Wyoming Community College runs outreach programs through a higher education center in town, housed in a former elementary school building. The middle school itself is a moderately sized school for its grade band, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across the three grades. Its student body is majority white with a substantial Hispanic share, and a moderate portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so those figures are absent here rather than indicating they do not exist.
On Wyoming's WY-TOPP assessment, the most recent results paint a mixed picture. English language arts is the relative bright spot: roughly half of sixth and seventh graders and a clear majority of eighth graders reached proficient or above, with participation essentially universal across all tested grades. Math results are weaker. Sixth-grade math proficiency sits below half, and seventh and eighth grade dip further, with only about a third of students meeting the proficiency bar in each of those grades. Eighth-grade science, the only science grade tested at this level, lands in a similar range, with about a third proficient. There is no multi-year trend data available, so it is hard to say whether these results represent a slide, a plateau, or a recovery in progress. A parent concerned about the math and science numbers may want to ask the school directly what interventions or curricular changes are underway.
When positioned against the small set used for comparison, districts in Carbon County, Rawlins Middle School's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile. That comparison set is narrow, covering just two districts, so the ranking reflects a limited field rather than a broad statewide peer group. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate figures were not available for this school; graduation rate does not apply to a middle school, and absenteeism data simply was not reported.
Several categories that parents often ask about are missing entirely from the available data. There is no reported information on Title I status, charter or magnet designation, staffing ratios, course access, discipline incidents, or civil-rights indicators. The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes from recent meetings or initiatives. Where these gaps exist, they reflect absent reporting rather than a clean bill of health, and a family with specific questions about special education services, gifted programming, or disciplinary climate would need to go directly to the school or district for answers.
What the available evidence does show is a middle school in a working, railroad-and-corrections town with affordable housing and a tight community infrastructure, producing decent ELA results but struggling in math and science. Families whose priority is a small-town environment with civic amenities nearby, and who are willing to engage with the school about academic support in the lower-performing subjects, may find this a workable fit. Those looking for stronger across-the-board proficiency numbers or richer program data may find the picture here incomplete enough to warrant a direct conversation with school leadership before deciding.
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