1
What's one thing SOUTHWEST MIDDLE gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,290
Middle
DISTRICT 906 · STATE 794
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ORANGE·NCES 120144002858
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE
6450 DR PHILLIPS BLVD, ORLANDO, FL 32819 · (407) 370-7200 · Orange County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,290 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
19.3:1
67 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 19.4:1 · STATE 19.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
33%
427 students
DISTRICT 44% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 371 | 29% |
| Grade 7 | 450 | 35% |
| Grade 8 | 469 | 36% |
Student demographics
69%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 69% · STATE 70% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE→DR. PHILLIPS HIGH
Feeds from
Based on published attendance-zone data from ORANGE. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
FAST / B.E.S.T. 2024-25 . % at Level 3 or AboveEnglish Language Arts
52.7%
FL avg 56.7% . +3.6pp since 2023
Math
60.6%
FL avg 58.9% . +3.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 53 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 61 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57 and 59. Reading and writing scores are up about 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
FAST / B.E.S.T. results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 52.7% | 60.6% |
| 2023-24 | 49.0% | 57.3% |
% at Level 3 or Above, all students and all tested grades.
Source: FAST / B.E.S.T.. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
55.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
64.6%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 56% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 65% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Florida's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like SOUTHWEST MIDDLE
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE's state test result (55.8% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOUTHWEST MIDDLE this school | 1,290 | 33.1% | 55.8% |
| EMERALD COVE MIDDLE SCHOOL WELLINGTON | 1,221 | 29.2% | 68.9% |
| GLENRIDGE MIDDLE ORLANDO | 1,111 | 38.4% | 56.5% |
| TIMBER SPRINGS MIDDLE ORLANDO | 1,067 | 27.5% | 68.5% |
| CORAL SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL CORAL SPRINGS | 980 | 29.8% | 64.8% |
| THOMAS E. WEIGHTMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL WESLEY CHAPEL | 1,270 | 27.5% | 55.9% |
Matched among Florida middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where SOUTHWEST MIDDLE ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Florida | In Orange County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 55.8% | #244 of 560 | #18 of 41 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 60.6% | #250 of 560 ▼ 4 | #18 of 41 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 52.7% | #297 of 560 ▼ 25 | #20 of 41 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,290 | #36 of 584 | #2 of 43 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 19.3:1 | #275 of 547 | #19 of 42 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 69.1% | #68 of 553 | #4 of 42 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 33.1% | #458 of 565 | #30 of 43 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -8.5% | #259 of 379 | #30 of 33 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
1,290
-104 (-7%) vs 2020
+8% since 2000-01, when it was 1,196
Student : Teacher
19.3:1
was 16.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 1,290 | 67 | 19.3:1 | 33% (427) |
| 2023-24 | 1,323 | 68 | 19.5:1 | 37% (494) |
| 2022-23 | 1,385 | 66 | 21.0:1 | 40% (553) |
| 2020-21 | 1,394 | 83 | 16.8:1 | 59% (821) |
| 2017-18 | 1,410 | 81 | 17.4:1 | 51% (717) |
| 2015-16 | 1,340 | 73 | 18.4:1 | 53% (710) |
| 2010-11 | 1,305 | 69 | 18.9:1 | 43% (561) |
| 2000-01 | 1,196 | 56 | 21.4:1 | 26% (315) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for SOUTHWEST MIDDLE.
About SOUTHWEST MIDDLE
As a large middle school, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE serves students in ORLANDO, Florida. The school serves grades 6 through 8. Enrollment is 1,290 students. That is 62% bigger than the average of about 794 students for middle schools in Florida.
Besides SOUTHWEST MIDDLE, ORANGE runs 271 other schools. The district enrolls 207,778 students.
The largest group at SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is Hispanic students, at 44%. The remaining students are 26% White, 21% Black, 7% Asian, and 2% multiracial. Census figures show Orange County is about 34% Hispanic. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE scores 69%.
The school had 67 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2024-25. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 19.3:1. The average ratio among middle schools in Florida is similar, at 19.6:1. The school reported 33% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25.
On BeatsExpectations, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is 8.8 points below its prediction, a result in the middle 80% of Florida schools.
For Orange County, Census Bureau data show median household income comes to about $79,719, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 39%, and about 10% of people live in poverty. There are 286 public schools in the county, enrolling about 216,813, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE among them.
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE's closest public school neighbor is DR. PHILLIPS ELEMENTARY, about 0.6 miles away. Within five miles of SOUTHWEST MIDDLE, there are at least 8 other public schools. Among its closest neighbors with test data, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is 4th of 7 on proficiency.
NCES assigns SOUTHWEST MIDDLE the locale Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
A 7% decline took enrollment from 1,394 in 2020-21 to 1,290 in 2024-25. Federal data show the ratio rising from 16.8:1 to 19.3:1.
People can post here about open houses, carpools, and field trips and other school topics. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Orange County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,471,937
Census ACS
Median income
$79,719
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
286
216,813 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in ORANGE
- APOPKA HIGHHigh · 3,446 students
- TIMBER CREEK HIGHHigh · 3,383 students
- WINTER PARK HIGHHigh · 3,277 students
- COLONIAL HIGHHigh · 3,239 students
- WINDERMERE HIGHHigh · 3,217 students
- CYPRESS CREEK HIGHHigh · 3,127 students
Other schools in ORLANDO
- FLORIDA VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 4,331 students
- TIMBER CREEK HIGHHigh · 3,383 students
- COLONIAL HIGHHigh · 3,239 students
- CYPRESS CREEK HIGHHigh · 3,127 students
- LAKE NONA HIGHHigh · 2,974 students
- DR. PHILLIPS HIGHHigh · 2,964 students
Other Southwest Middle schools
14 other US public schools in 10 states are named Southwest Middle. SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is the largest of the 15.
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOLPALM BAY, FL · 997 students
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOLLAKELAND, FL · 746 students
- Southwest Middle SchoolCharlotte, NC · 1,205 students
- SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOLSEARCY, AR · 913 students
- Southwest MiddleGastonia, NC · 832 students
Nearby schools
- DR. PHILLIPS ELEMENTARY0.6 mi · 638
- DR. PHILLIPS HIGH1.0 mi · 2,964
- PALM LAKE ELEMENTARY1.0 mi · 574
- UNIVERSAL EDUCATION CENTER1.5 mi · 24
- CHAIN OF LAKES MIDDLE1.7 mi · 955
- OLYMPIA HIGH2.1 mi · 2,901
Frequently asked questions
About SOUTHWEST MIDDLEHow many students attend SOUTHWEST MIDDLE?
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE enrolls approximately 1,290 students in grades 06-08.
Is SOUTHWEST MIDDLE an elementary, middle, or high school?
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does SOUTHWEST MIDDLE have?
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE employs 67 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 19.3:1.
What is the student diversity at SOUTHWEST MIDDLE?
Student demographics at SOUTHWEST MIDDLE are roughly 26% White, 44% Hispanic, 21% Black, 7% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Is SOUTHWEST MIDDLE public or private?
SOUTHWEST MIDDLE is a public K-12 school, overseen by ORANGE.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.