Hampton-dumont Middle School, Hampton IA

Original Research by School Decision on Hampton-dumont Middle School

Hampton-Dumont Middle School serves students in fifth through eighth grade in the Hampton-Dumont Community School District, a merged district that brings together the former Hampton and Dumont school systems. The school is located in Hampton, a small rural county seat in north-central Iowa whose downtown is organized around a historic courthouse square. The area’s economy draws on transportation and warehousing, agriculture, wind energy, and the Franklin Medical Center, a key local employer. Housing is affordable relative to national benchmarks, and the population has been essentially flat for years. The most significant demographic shift has been the growth of the Hispanic population.

The middle school’s enrollment reflects that change. A substantial share of students identify as Hispanic, and a majority of the student body is white. Economic need is a reality for many families, with a considerable portion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. It does not appear to carry Title I status in the available data. The district brief turned up no recent major changes to share.

On state testing, the school shows an uneven picture. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above is a strength, reaching a level that positions the school above the midpoint among districts in Franklin County. In math, a smaller share of students reached proficiency. Science results were similar to math, with a proficiency share that is lower than the ELA result. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how the middle school supports students in math and science. The data covers only the most recent testing year, so it is not possible to see a trend from this single point. Test participation rates were high, which lends credibility to the results.

Because the school serves only grades five through eight, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data set does not include information on chronic absenteeism or discipline. The comparison set used here is the two districts in Franklin County. That is a small universe, so the positioning relative to the county midpoint should be read in that context a single other district determines the other half of the range.

The school’s web presence was not part of the data provided, and no details on course offerings, enrichment programs, or extracurriculars were available. For a family deciding whether this middle school fits, the academic picture centers on a solid ELA performance alongside math and science outcomes that trail. The student body is economically diverse and has a visible Hispanic population, which shapes the peer environment. The community is a stable, small rural town with a compact downtown and traditional civic anchors a county fair, a state park, and a summer concert series. Growth is flat, and the housing market is affordable by national standards. A family moving to the area should expect a middle school that serves a broad cross-section of the community and will want to ask about the school’s approach to math and science instruction and what programs and supports fill out the day beyond tested subjects.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-865%

School 65% · District 66% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median

English language arts

Grades 3-873%

School 73% · District 70% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grades 3-865%

School 65% · District 65%

▼ 4 pts below state median

This schoolHampton-Dumont Comm School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income89%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income70%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income65%Higher-income85%20 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income67%Higher-income86%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income71%Higher-income93%23 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income65%Higher-income84%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income93%41 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income67%Higher-income70%3 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income58%Higher-income81%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income75%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income59%Higher-income82%23 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income57%Higher-income77%20 pp gap