The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Horace J. Good Middle School
Horace J. Good Middle School serves seventh and eighth grades in the Garden City public school district, a single school for those two grade levels in a city that functions as the agricultural and meatpacking hub of southwestern Kansas. The school community overwhelmingly reflects the broader Garden City population, which is majority Hispanic and includes significant immigrant communities from Myanmar, Somalia, Vietnam, and Latin America. Slightly more than three-quarters of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a high share that places the school in a context where poverty is a material factor in family life and school resources.
The academic picture from the most recent state testing year is what a parent might call a soft spot. In seventh-grade math, about one in five students scored proficient or above on the Kansas Assessment Program, and eighth-grade math came in at a similar level. English language arts results were higher but still modest, with roughly three in ten seventh graders and a slightly lower share of eighth graders meeting the proficiency bar. Eighth-grade science proficiency came in at about two in ten. When compared against the other districts in Finney County, the school’s overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile. State officials changed the cut scores for the assessments in this testing year, so the school’s trend lines are hard to read; the district brief turned up little in the way of publicly reported recent strategic changes, so a parent who wants to understand direction and momentum would need to ask the school or district administration directly.
Garden City itself is a place with a distinct character. The economy is driven by agriculture and meatpacking, led by Tyson Fresh Meats and the school district itself as top employers, with a feedlot and grain elevator presence and an ethanol plant nearby. The city has a traditional downtown core with the Finney County courthouse and historic buildings like the Windsor Hotel, and it sits at the intersection of U.S. Routes 50 and 83. The population has seen a slight decline from the 2020 census, but the city expanded its land area through annexation over the previous two decades. The city is a stop on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief line and has regional air service to Dallas-Fort Worth. Housing values in the area are somewhat below the state benchmark, making it more affordable than many Kansas communities. Commutes tend to be short, typical for a self-contained regional center.
For a family considering this school, the composition of the student body is a notable characteristic. The school reflects a richly multilingual and multicultural community. A parent should expect that many students come from homes where English is not the primary language, and the school’s programming for English learners is worth understanding directly from the school, as the data did not include specific counts of English learner or special education students. Similarly, no information was available on staffing ratios, discipline rates, or chronic absenteeism, so those are open questions to pursue.
The school is not a charter and is a straightforward public middle school within the Garden City district. It is the only middle school serving seventh and eighth grade in the district, so it is the default pathway for those grades for most families in the city. A parent who values academic proficiency as the primary metric will find that the numbers here are low relative to state and county peers. A parent who values a school that reflects the community it serves, and who wants a child to grow up in a setting that mirrors the actual demographics of a High Plains meatpacking town, will find that Horace J. Good Middle School is precisely that. A parent should plan to visit, ask about supports for students who are behind grade level, and ask about the school’s approach to the language diversity present in nearly every classroom.
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