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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at TWAIN MIDDLE?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,026
Middle
DISTRICT 1,029 · STATE 750
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 510126000576
Twain Middle
4700 Franconia Rd, Alexandria, VA 22310 · (703) 313-3700 · Fairfax County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,026 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.2:1
84 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.6:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
35%
362 students
DISTRICT 39% · STATE 66%
Community
1
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 7 | 509 | 50% |
| Grade 8 | 517 | 50% |
Student demographics
75%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · STATE 71% · 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
Test scores
SOL 2024-25 . % PassingEnglish Language Arts
79.0%
VA avg 74.2% . +2.0pp since 2022
Math
74.0%
VA avg 72.7% . +7.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the SOL, Virginia's statewide test, about 79 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 74 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Virginia schools, those numbers are about 74 and 73. Reading and writing scores are up about 2 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 7 points.
SOL results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 79.0% | 74.0% |
| 2023-24 | 79.0% | 71.0% |
| 2022-23 | 77.0% | 67.0% |
% Passing, all students and all tested grades.
Source: SOL. 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
74.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
78.5%
based on VA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 75% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 79% typical for Virginia 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 Virginia'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 Twain Middle
Twain Middle's state test result (74.7% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twain Middle this school | 1,026 | 35.3% | 74.7% |
| Bull Run Middle Gainesville | 1,129 | 39.4% | 76.6% |
| Hughes Middle Reston | 1,012 | 41.4% | 74.2% |
| Harper Park Middle Leesburg | 858 | 34.7% | 77.1% |
| Gunston Middle Arlington | 1,072 | 32.0% | 72.9% |
| Stone Middle Centreville | 718 | 39.0% | 73.3% |
Matched among Virginia 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 Twain Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Virginia | In Fairfax County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 74.7% | #126 of 337 | #12 of 22 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 74.0% | #126 of 342 ▲ 29 | #14 of 23 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 79.0% | #105 of 342 ▼ 18 | #13 of 23 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,026 | #75 of 343 | #9 of 23 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.2:1 | #101 of 327 | #10 of 23 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 75.4% | #5 of 333 | #1 of 23 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 35.3% | #266 of 340 | #12 of 22 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +0.1% | #99 of 99 | N/A |
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
1,026
-104 (-9%) vs 2020
+57% since 1990-91, when it was 655
Student : Teacher
12.2:1
was 12.8:1
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 | 1,026 | 84.3 | 12.2:1 | 35% (362) |
| 2023-24 | 986 | 80.3 | 12.3:1 | 36% (358) |
| 2022-23 | 988 | 71 | 13.9:1 | 37% (362) |
| 2020-21 | 1,130 | 88 | 12.8:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 1,025 | 80.1 | 12.8:1 | 33% (340) |
| 2015-16 | 978 | 83 | 11.8:1 | 33% (320) |
| 2010-11 | 815 | 50 | 16.3:1 | 31% (249) |
| 2000-01 | 899 | 65 | 13.8:1 | 26% (233) |
| 1990-91 | 655 | 44 | 14.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Twain Middle.
Since 2017-18: students unchanged (1,025 to 1,026); teachers up 5% (80.1 to 84.3).
About Twain Middle
Twain Middle is a public medium-sized middle school in Alexandria, Virginia. School enrollment was 1,026 students in 2024-25, in grades 7 through 8. The average among middle schools in Virginia is roughly 750 students; this school is 37% larger than that.
Fairfax County Public Schools includes 199 schools. Together they enroll 179,323 students.
Enrollment at Twain Middle is mixed, with White students the largest group at 31%. The rest of enrollment is 31% Hispanic, 17% Black, 13% Asian, and 7% multiracial. Census estimates put the White share of Fairfax County's population at about 49%. Twain Middle has a diversity index of 75%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
The school reports 84.3 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 12.2 students per teacher. For comparison, middle schools in Virginia average 13.1:1. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility covers 35% of students. That is close to the 37% average for public schools in Fairfax County.
Twain Middle posts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 74.7%, compared with a predicted 78.5%. It is not in the top or bottom 10% of Virginia schools on BeatsExpectations.
Fairfax County has these Census figures: median household income is about $153,637, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 65% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 4%. The public schools of Fairfax County number 222 and enroll about 174,475.
Clermont Elementary is the public school closest to Twain Middle, about 0.4 miles away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 70.4%; Twain Middle's is 74.7%, ranking 3rd of 8.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Suburb: Large: in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Twain Middle had 1,130 students in 2020-21 and 1,026 in 2024-25, a 9% decrease.
The Twain Middle community page is open for posts about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Fairfax County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,147,837
Census ACS
Median income
$153,637
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
65%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
222
174,475 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Fairfax County Public Schools
- Lake Braddock SecondaryHigh · 4,411 students
- Robinson SecondaryHigh · 3,710 students
- Hayfield SecondaryHigh · 3,256 students
- Chantilly HighHigh · 2,937 students
- West Springfield HighHigh · 2,799 students
- Westfield HighHigh · 2,737 students
Other schools in Alexandria
- Alexandria City HighHigh · 4,655 students
- Hayfield SecondaryHigh · 3,256 students
- West Potomac HighHigh · 2,710 students
- Edison HighHigh · 2,294 students
- Thomas Jefferson High for Science and TechnologyHigh · 2,108 students
- Mount Vernon HighHigh · 1,858 students
Nearby schools
- Clermont Elementary0.4 mi · 549
- Bush Hill Elementary0.5 mi · 673
- Rose Hill Elementary0.6 mi · 671
- Edison High1.2 mi · 2,294
- Samuel W. Tucker Elementary1.2 mi · 735
- Virginia Hills Early Childhood Resource Center1.3 mi · 249
Frequently asked questions
About Twain MiddleHow many students attend Twain Middle?
Twain Middle enrolls approximately 1,026 students in grades 07-08.
What age range does Twain Middle serve?
Twain Middle serves students from grade 07 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Twain Middle?
Approximately 12.2:1 students per teacher at Twain Middle.
How diverse is Twain Middle?
Twain Middle reports a student body of 31% White, 31% Hispanic, 17% Black, 13% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Who oversees Twain Middle?
Twain Middle is overseen by Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.