West Franklin Middle School, Pomona KS

Original Research by School Decision on West Franklin Middle School

In Pomona, a small rural Kansas town, West Franklin Middle School serves grades six through eight as part of the West Franklin school district. The school is a neighborhood fixture in a community that formed through earlier school consolidations, and its student body of roughly that size for a middle school reflects the area’s stable, low-growth character.

The student population is predominantly white, with small shares of students identifying as two or more races, Hispanic, or American Indian or Alaska Native. About two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share that aligns with a modest-income town. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners were not available, so a parent may want to ask about those supports directly.

On the Kansas Assessment Program tests, proficiency rates fall below the county midpoint. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above is below a third in all three tested grades, with the highest rate in sixth grade. English language arts performance is somewhat stronger, with roughly a third to just over a third of students in grades seven and eight meeting the bar, and a similar share in sixth. In eighth grade, the only tested science year, about a third of students reached proficiency. Overall, the school sits in the bottom quartile among Franklin County’s four districts on a combined proficiency index. State testing cut scores changed recently for math, ELA, and science, which makes direct year-over-year comparison unreliable, but the available picture shows consistent underperformance relative to peers in the county.

Pomona itself is a very small town with a rural layout and a population that has stayed roughly flat in recent years. The town has a city hall and is near Pomona State Park, but transit and walkability are not significant features; car dependence is the norm. The school district’s only recent structural change noted in public records is the earlier consolidation that created West Franklin High School; no parent-relevant district-level changes were found for the current period.

Several areas that families often consider are missing from the data. There is no information on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary incidents, course access, staffing ratios, or program offerings such as electives, arts, or career exploration. Because this is a middle school without a high school grade band, there is no graduation rate to report. A parent or guardian looking for a full picture of the school’s climate, supports, and enrichment options would want to follow up with the school directly. The core academic data, however, points to a school where a significant portion of students are still developing foundational skills in math and literacy, a fact that matters for any family evaluating whether the instructional approach matches their child’s needs.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 12 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 38%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Science

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 2 pts below state median

This schoolWest Franklin, 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 6Lower-income21%Higher-income42%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income44%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income43%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income47%29 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income21%Higher-income28%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income14%Higher-income29%14 pp gap