Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 52346

There is only one middle school located in zip code 52346 - Benton Community Middle School, which serves grades 6-8 and is part of the Benton Community School District. While the school's performance has fluctuated in recent years, it has shown some academic strengths, particularly in 8th-grade English Language Arts and Science, where it outperforms the state average. However, the school faces challenges with a higher-than-average chronic absenteeism rate, which could be an area for improvement.

Benton Community Middle School has seen its ranking within the state of Iowa range from 131st out of 344 middle schools in 2024-2025 to 189th out of 334 in 2022-2023, and its SchoolDigger rating has varied from 3 stars out of 5 in 2024-2025 to 2 stars in the previous two years. In the 2024-2025 school year, the school outperformed the state average in all tested subjects for both 7th and 8th grades, with particularly strong 8th-grade performance in ELA and Science. However, the school's 8th-grade Mathematics proficiency rate was slightly below the state average.

Despite these academic strengths, Benton Community Middle School faces a chronic absenteeism rate of 21.6% in the 2023-2024 school year, which is higher than the state average. The school's relatively low percentage of free and reduced-price lunch recipients and its per-student spending suggest it may have access to more resources compared to schools serving a higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students, which could be a factor in its academic performance. Overall, the school's performance appears to be variable, and addressing attendance issues could be a key focus for improvement.