The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on New Franklin Middle-high
New Franklin Middle-High serves grades six through twelve in a single building that houses the entire secondary age range for the New Franklin R-I district. The school sits at 412 West Broadway in the small Howard County town of New Franklin, a rural community that has seen a modest population decline in recent years and is part of the Columbia metropolitan statistical area. The town itself is walkable only around its compact downtown core, with the Katy Trail running through it as a recreational corridor, and the local economy is thin: the school district and the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry are among the few identifiable employers. Housing values in the area are well below the state benchmark, reflecting the rural setting and limited economic expansion.
The school is small, enrolling just over two hundred students across all seven grade levels. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small Hispanic presence and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. About three-tenths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a moderate range of economic need by national standards. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a reader should check with the school directly about how those populations are served.
On the Missouri Assessment Program for the most recent testing year, the picture is mixed and incomplete. Seventh-grade math proficiency was above the midpoint among the county's three districts when combined into a single proficiency index, and the school sits above the midpoint on that index overall. But the grade-level results are uneven. In math, seventh graders cleared the proficiency bar at a rate that would be considered moderate, while eighth-grade math was much weaker, with a small share of students reaching proficiency. Sixth-grade math results were suppressed, so no conclusion can be drawn for that group. In English language arts, seventh graders showed proficiency at a similar moderate level, while results for sixth and eighth grades were suppressed. Science proficiency in eighth grade was low. The suppressed results for several grade levels and subjects mean a parent cannot get a full picture of academic performance from public data alone; asking the school for detail on those results is the logical next step.
The school does not have a reported graduation rate in this dataset, and no information was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or staffing ratios. Those are gaps a family would want to fill through a visit or direct inquiry.
The comparison to other districts in Howard County shows New Franklin Middle-High landing above the midpoint on the proficiency index, though with only three districts in the county that positioning covers a narrow range. The highest-performing district in the county sits well above, so the label tells a parent this school is in the middle tier locally rather than at either extreme.
Program offerings, course access details, and these days such as Advanced Placement or dual-credit options were not included in the available data. The school's website would be the place to look for that information. The absence of a district brief with parent-relevant changes suggests the district has not publicly reported any significant recent shifts in policy, leadership, or facilities that would alter a family's consideration.
For a family considering New Franklin, this is a small rural combined middle and high school where academic performance varies by grade and subject, with some strong spots and some soft ones that merit further investigation. The town is quiet, with limited economic growth and a modest cost of living. The school is the community's sole secondary option within the district, so the decision for most local families is about whether this setting and these academic patterns fit their student rather than about choosing among local alternatives.
See more original research from School Decision →