The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 39% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hill-gustat Middle School
Hill-Gustat Middle School sits on Schumacher Road in Sebring, the small central-Florida city built around its famous circular downtown on Lake Jackson. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as its primary population, though a handful of students in grades nine through twelve appear in enrollment records, likely reflecting scheduling or administrative overlap. It is a regular public school within the Highlands County School District, not a charter or magnet program.
The student body is a genuinely mixed one. Hispanic students make up the largest single group, followed closely by white students, with Black students, Asian students, and smaller multiracial and other populations rounding out the school. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this firmly in the category of a high-poverty-rate campus. Data on English learner enrollment and special education identification rates were not available in the data provided, so parents looking at support services for those populations would want to ask the school directly.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture in reading and writing holds better than in math. Sixth and eighth graders in ELA tested at a proficiency rate sitting just above half of students, while seventh grade came in a bit below that. In math, sixth grade was in the low forties, eighth grade close to half, and seventh grade was the most challenging at roughly a quarter of students reaching proficiency. The eighth-grade science assessment showed the strongest result of any subject tested, with a clear majority of students scoring proficient. These are honest results that sit below statewide norms, and parents considering this school for a student who needs enrichment or remediation in math in particular may want to ask what the school's intervention pathways look like. The data does not show multi-year trends, so whether these numbers represent improvement, decline, or stability is not something the available evidence answers.
A comparison against other districts in Highlands County was not possible in a meaningful way because Highlands County has only one public school district, which makes relative positioning within the county uninformative here.
The Highlands County district itself is navigating real financial pressure. Publicly reported news out of WGCU describes a district-level plan to eliminate a substantial number of administrative positions for the upcoming fiscal year, with savings driven largely by the need to respond to state dollars being redirected toward private-school vouchers statewide. Families should know this is an active budget conversation, not a settled one. On the other side of the ledger, Highlands County voters approved a Half-Cent Sales Tax specifically dedicated to school safety and academic programs, overseen by a citizen advisory committee that meets quarterly and reports on how the money is spent. That local revenue stream offers some counterweight to state-level pressure.
Sebring itself gives context worth knowing. The city is a slow-paced small-town community, genuinely walkable in its compact downtown Circle district but car-dependent everywhere else, including around the school's location off Schumacher Road. The area is in a clear growth phase: new residential construction has accelerated notably, housing permit activity in early 2025 more than doubled the prior year's pace, and Sebring drew national attention as the host city for HGTV's Hometown Takeover in spring 2025. Home values in the area remain well below the Florida statewide average, with rents that represent a manageable share of a typical household's budget relative to national benchmarks, though affordability is stretched against local incomes. The county's largest employers are the school district itself, AdventHealth, and Highlands County government, meaning public-sector and healthcare work anchor the local economy.
Programs data for Hill-Gustat was not available in the data provided, so specific offerings in athletics, arts, electives, or academic enrichment are gaps a parent should raise with the school.
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