Gooding Middle School

Gooding Middle School is a public middle school in Gooding, Idaho, serving 287 students in grades 6-8. The school is part of the Gooding Joint District, which is ranked 74th out of 96 districts in the state and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Unfortunately, Gooding Middle School has consistently ranked in the bottom quarter of Idaho middle schools over the past decade, with its highest ranking being 94th out of 100 in 2017-2018.

Academically, Gooding Middle School underperforms compared to the state and its own district averages in both math and English language arts (ELA) proficiency on the ISAT assessments. For the 2024-2025 school year, the school's math proficiency rate is 29.3%, compared to the state average of 43.1% and the district average of 33.3%. Similarly, the school's ELA proficiency rate is 52.1%, while the state average is 53.9% and the district average is 49.3%. Additionally, Gooding Middle School has struggled with high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 15.0% to 21.0% over the past few years, which is significantly higher than the state's average.

Interestingly, Gooding Middle School's academic performance is significantly lower than that of the nearby Jerome Middle School and Shoshone Middle School, which are also part of the bottom quartile of Idaho middle schools but have higher proficiency rates in both math and ELA. Despite having a relatively low student-teacher ratio and higher spending per student compared to some nearby schools, such as Wendell Middle School, Gooding Middle School has not shown significant improvement in its academic performance over the past decade.