Summary:
Benton has two schools in the Circle district, serving students from prekindergarten through grade 8: Circle Benton Elementary serves PK–6, and Circle Middle School serves grades 7–8. Their 2025–26 results show a clear difference between the schools, rather than one uniform picture of Benton: the most important finding is that Elementary scores exceed Middle’s by 18 to 24 percentage points across all three subjects.
Circle Benton Elementary stands out, leading in ELA, math, and science, with 71%, 50%, and 59% proficient, respectively. Those results are 25 points above Kansas in ELA, 9 points above in math, and 21 points above in science. Circle Middle School is lower in all three subjects, at 47% in ELA, 32% in math, and 39% in science; it is about 1 point above the state in ELA and science, but 9 points below in math. SchoolDigger gives Elementary 4 stars and ranks it 146th of 657 schools (78th percentile), while Middle has 3 stars and ranks 171st of 368 (54th percentile). Middle’s math results were below Kansas in both grade 7, by 8 points, and grade 8, by 5 points.
Recent score changes show why the current snapshot does not tell the whole story. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, Elementary ELA rose 7 points, while its math and science scores fell 10 and 15 points. Middle’s ELA fell 2 points and math fell 4, while science rose 5 points, moving from below the state to 1 point above it. SchoolDigger’s three-year percentile history also diverges: Middle declined from the 67th to the 54th percentile, while Elementary moved from the 79th to the 78th. The schools’ context measures differ too: their student–teacher ratios are 14.3 at Elementary and 13.8 at Middle, and their reported free/reduced-lunch rates are 34% and 42%. These are observations, not explanations for test results.
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