Golden Plains High

Golden Plains High is a small school in rural Rexford, Kansas, serving 55 students in grades 9–12. Its latest results show a clear difference by subject: mathematics is comparatively stronger, while English language arts (ELA) is below nearby and state results. The most urgent concern is science, where proficiency was 0% in 2025–26, below the state’s 38%, the district’s 24%, and nearby Colby Senior High at 28% and Hoxie High at 52%.

Math is the school’s strongest subject relative to its comparisons: 37% proficiency was 8 percentage points above the Golden Plains district and 6 points above Colby, although 4 points below the state and 11 below Hoxie. ELA was 28%, below the district by 6 points, the state by 18, Colby by 15, and Hoxie by 21. Chronic absenteeism, at 23%, was also higher than the state’s 18% and both nearby schools—20% at Colby and 22% at Hoxie. These results show that performance is not equally weak across subjects, but ELA and especially science need attention.

Math proficiency rose from 12% in 2022–23 to 37% in 2025–26, narrowing its gap with the state; ELA fell from 38% in 2024–25 to 28%, while science declined from 54% in 2022–23 to 0% in the latest result. SchoolDigger ranked Golden Plains at the 20th percentile with 1 star in 2025–26, down from the 48th percentile and 2 stars the prior year; Colby ranked at the 46th percentile and Hoxie at the 59th. SchoolDigger’s measure of how well the school serves students with low socioeconomic status was at the 16th percentile, down from the 64th the previous year. Its White Students ranking was at the 37th percentile, above the school’s overall ranking but down from the 68th percentile in 2022–23. The school’s student-teacher ratio was 6.5, compared with Colby’s 13.6; its free/reduced-lunch rate was 78%, versus 30% at Colby and 33% at Hoxie, a comparison that provides context but does not explain results. With only 55 students, year-to-year scores can shift with small changes in the number tested.