Kimberly Middle School

Kimberly Middle School, serving 482 students in grades 6–8, is part of the Kimberly District in Kimberly, Idaho, a small community near Twin Falls, and currently ranks 95th out of 174 Idaho middle schools with a 2-star state rating.

Perhaps the most important story here is recovery. After ranking 11th in the state with a 5-star rating in 2011-2012, the school fell to a 1-star rating a decade later. Since then, test scores have climbed steadily. English language arts proficiency reached 53.7% in 2025-2026, essentially matching the state average, with particularly strong 7th grade results (62.4%). All-grades math proficiency has improved from 28.5% to 38.8%, narrowing the gap to the state average to just over 4 percentage points. However, 8th grade math remains a significant weakness at 26.2% proficiency versus a 41.2% state average—a sharp drop from the school's 6th and 7th grade math scores (44.0% and 46.5%). Notably, Vera C O'Leary Middle School, which has a higher free/reduced lunch rate than Kimberly, outperforms it in both math (46.7%) and ELA (61.2%).

Kimberly serves a comparatively low-poverty student population—about 29% qualify for free/reduced-price lunch, the lowest rate among all nearby middle schools—and spends less per student ($6,268) than every neighboring school in the comparison group. This combination of advantages suggests meaningful room for growth, especially at the 8th grade level. Chronic absenteeism, at 18.0%, is slightly above the state rate of 13.8% but far better than Robert Stuart Middle School (28.2%) and South Hills Middle School (28.2%). Overall, Kimberly Middle School is in a genuine period of academic recovery, one that has it performing better than many higher-spending neighbors—but falling short of what its student demographics might suggest is possible.