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If you could change one rule at Shuksan Middle School, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
606
Middle
DISTRICT 602 · STATE 577
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BELLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 530042000114
Shuksan Middle School
2717 Alderwood Ave, Bellingham, WA 98225 · (360) 676-6454 · Whatcom County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL606 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 29% of Washington public middle schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- BThree-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Washington public middle schools
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.8:1 · STATE 18.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
52%
316 students
DISTRICT 44% · STATE 51%
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 6 | 217 | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 198 | 33% |
| Grade 8 | 191 | 32% |
Student demographics
61%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 55% · STATE 68% · 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
Smarter Balanced + WCAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded StandardEnglish Language Arts
41.9%
WA avg 58.4% . -9.1pp since 2014
Math
27.6%
WA avg 51.2% . -7.6pp since 2014
What this means: On the Smarter Balanced + WCAS, Washington's statewide test, about 42 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 28 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Washington schools, those numbers are about 58 and 51. Reading and writing scores are down about 9 points since 2014, while math scores are down about 8 points.
Smarter Balanced + WCAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 41.9% | 27.6% |
| 2023-24 | 35.2% | 27.8% |
| 2022-23 | 35.5% | 27.0% |
| 2021-22 | 39.6% | 23.6% |
| 2018-19 | 43.9% | 33.2% |
| 2017-18 | 50.6% | 37.6% |
| 2016-17 | 50.2% | 36.3% |
| 2015-16 | 50.3% | 33.7% |
| 2014-15 | 51.0% | 35.1% |
% Met or Exceeded Standard, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Smarter Balanced + WCAS. 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
35.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
45.2%
based on WA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-10.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 35% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 45% typical for Washington 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 Washington'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 Shuksan Middle School
Shuksan Middle School's state test result (35.1% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shuksan Middle School this school | 606 | 52.1% | 35.1% |
| Lakewood Middle School Marysville | 668 | 50.1% | 30.2% |
| Vista Middle School Ferndale | 550 | 55.6% | 43.3% |
| Jason Lee Middle School VANCOUVER | 568 | 48.4% | N/A |
| Cougar Mountain Middle School Graham | 605 | 50.4% | 43.9% |
| Fairview Middle School BREMERTON | 620 | 50.5% | 37.3% |
Matched among Washington 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 Shuksan Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Washington | In Whatcom County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 35.1% | #188 of 294 | #9 of 11 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 27.6% | #236 of 357 ▼ 12 | #10 of 11 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 41.9% | #222 of 357 ▲ 49 | #9 of 11 ▲ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +3.1pp | #120 of 290 | #6 of 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 606 | #193 of 377 | #3 of 11 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.8:1 | #41 of 340 | #2 of 11 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 61.4% | #142 of 340 | #3 of 11 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 52.1% | #171 of 359 | #6 of 11 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -8.5% | #120 of 192 | #4 of 8 |
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
606
-57 (-9%) vs 2020
-6% since 1990-91, when it was 647
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
was 16.6:1
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 | 606 | 36.2 | 16.8:1 | 52% (316) |
| 2023-24 | 578 | 35 | 16.5:1 | 61% (353) |
| 2022-23 | 579 | 36.5 | 15.9:1 | 60% (346) |
| 2020-21 | 663 | 40 | 16.6:1 | 58% (386) |
| 2017-18 | 662 | 37.7 | 17.6:1 | 59% (390) |
| 2015-16 | 607 | 35 | 17.3:1 | 62% (376) |
| 2010-11 | 810 | 42 | 19.3:1 | 47% (381) |
| 2000-01 | 429 | 21 | 20.4:1 | N/A |
| 1990-91 | 647 | 35 | 18.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Shuksan Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 8% (662 to 606); teachers down 4% (37.7 to 36.2).
About Shuksan Middle School
Shuksan Middle School is a mid-sized middle-grades school in Bellingham, Washington, one of the schools in Bellingham School District. Its grade span covers grades 6 through 8, with 606 students on the rolls.
Shuksan Middle School is part of a district of 25 schools: Bellingham School District, with 11,337 students.
Federal enrollment data show Shuksan Middle School is 52% White. Other groups include 31% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, and 4% Asian. The county population is about 78% White. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 61%.
Shuksan Middle School has 36.2 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff and a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.8:1. The school's 16.8:1 compares with an average of 18.9:1 for middle schools in Washington. The school has 52% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Shuksan Middle School holds a C allk12 Grade, placing it above 29% of Washington public middle schools.
A school with Shuksan Middle School's lunch-eligibility share in Washington is predicted to score 45.2%. Shuksan Middle School scores 35.1%, 10.1 points below that line.
Census data for Whatcom County show median household income comes to about $81,784, about 39% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. There are 78 public schools in the county, enrolling about 27,779, Shuksan Middle School among them.
Birchwood Elementary School, about 0.3 miles away, is the closest public school. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Shuksan Middle School is 3rd of 7 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
In the federal locale system, Shuksan Middle School is coded City: Small, for schools inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment decreased from 663 to 606, a 9% decline.
Use the discussion section to ask about special education services, counseling, and support programs at Shuksan Middle School. You can also rate the school on this page.
Whatcom County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
230,503
Census ACS
Median income
$81,784
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
78
27,779 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Bellingham School District
- Squalicum High SchoolHigh · 1,273 students
- Bellingham High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Sehome High SchoolHigh · 1,116 students
- Whatcom Middle SchoolMiddle · 637 students
- Fairhaven Middle SchoolMiddle · 588 students
- Kulshan Middle SchoolMiddle · 575 students
Other schools in Bellingham
- Squalicum High SchoolHigh · 1,273 students
- Bellingham High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Sehome High SchoolHigh · 1,116 students
- Whatcom Middle SchoolMiddle · 637 students
- Fairhaven Middle SchoolMiddle · 588 students
- Kulshan Middle SchoolMiddle · 575 students
Nearby schools
- Birchwood Elementary School0.3 mi · 335
- Intergenerational High School0.7 mi · 107
- Blaine Re-Engagement1.0 mi · 14
- Meridian Impact Re-Engagement1.0 mi · 21
- Columbia Elementary School1.1 mi · 187
- Alderwood Elementary School1.1 mi · 305
Frequently asked questions
About Shuksan Middle SchoolHow large is Shuksan Middle School?
Shuksan Middle School enrolls approximately 606 students in grades 06-08.
Is Shuksan Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Shuksan Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many students per teacher at Shuksan Middle School?
Approximately 16.8:1 students per teacher at Shuksan Middle School.
How diverse is Shuksan Middle School?
Shuksan Middle School reports a student body of 52% White, 31% Hispanic, 2% Black, 4% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Shuksan Middle School?
Shuksan Middle School is overseen by Bellingham School District in Whatcom County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.