Halstead Middle School, Halstead KS

Original Research by School Decision on Halstead Middle School

Halstead Middle School serves students in fourth through eighth grade in the Halstead-Bentley school district. The school sits in Halstead, a small incorporated city in Harvey County, Kansas, that was founded largely by Russian Mennonite immigrants and remains a farming community with a compact downtown along Main Street. Riverside Park, a local civic anchor along the Little Arkansas River, is within walking distance of the school. The town’s population is essentially flat, and housing values are lower than the national median, making it a relatively affordable place to live in the Wichita metro orbit.

The school’s student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic share that is roughly in line with what one might expect in a central Kansas agricultural town. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals that economic need is present but not overwhelming. The school has a small enrollment for a middle school that spans five grade levels, and it is not a charter or magnet school.

State testing results from the Kansas Assessment Program show a mixed picture. In math, proficiency rates vary by grade, with the highest share of students meeting the standard in fifth grade and the lowest in seventh grade; the other three tested grades cluster around the middle. In English language arts, the strongest grade is fifth grade, where a majority of students scored proficient or above, while the other grades show lower results, particularly sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, where less than half of students reach that bar. In science, a majority of fifth graders met the proficiency standard, while eighth-grade science results are lower. These results are from a single year, and the state changed its testing cut scores in both math and English language arts for this year, so direct comparisons to prior years are not reliable.

Overall, the school’s proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades places it slightly above the midpoint among the six districts in Harvey County. That means achievement here is about average for the area, not notably high or low. A parent looking at these numbers would see a school where fifth grade tends to be a stronger year, and where there is a drop-off in middle school, particularly in seventh-grade math and in eighth-grade English language arts. This pattern is common in many schools nationally, but the specific gaps are worth discussing with the school directly.

Because Halstead Middle School does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school also does not have publicly available data on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, or course access, so it is not possible to assess how many students take advanced courses or what the teacher-to-student ratio looks like. Those are gaps a prospective family would want to fill by visiting or contacting the school.

The Halstead-Bentley district has no recent major changes or initiatives publicly reported. The district was not subject to any recent bond measures, leadership transitions, or program overhauls that appeared in available sources. That stability may appeal to families who prefer a predictable, low-turnover environment, though it also means there is no public record of new investment or curricular innovation to evaluate.

For a family considering Halstead Middle School, the profile is that of a small-town middle school with average academic results for the county, a stable district and community, and a modest socioeconomic mix. The housing market is affordable relative to the national median, and the town’s slow population growth suggests a settled, low-pressure environment. A family moving here would want to follow up directly with the school about classroom support, elective offerings, and how the school addresses the proficiency gaps visible in the upper middle grades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 11 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Science

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 16 pts above state median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 9 pts above state median

This schoolHalstead, 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-income24%Higher-income68%44 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income71%26 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income51%32 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income59%38 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income19%Higher-income57%38 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income14%Higher-income62%48 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income32%Higher-income68%36 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income56%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income49%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income61%32 pp gap