Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 66030

Zip code 66030 has three middle schools in Gardner—Trail Ridge Middle School, Pioneer Ridge Middle School and Wheatridge Middle School—and all serve grades 5–8. In 2025–26, each school’s all-grades proficiency rate was above the Kansas rate in English language arts (ELA), math and science. Across the three schools, science was the strongest subject relative to the state: their average was 13 points above the state rate, compared with 7 points in math and 2 points in ELA. The most important takeaway is that all three schools were above the state in every subject overall, but their strongest subjects differ.

Pioneer Ridge Middle School stands out in math and especially science, leading the group with 52% proficiency in math and 63% in science; its science result was 25 points above the state and 18 points above the average of the other two schools. Wheatridge Middle School leads in ELA at 49%, 4 points above the state. Trail Ridge Middle School has the lowest all-grades result in each subject, though it remains above the state in all three; its narrowest margin is ELA, at 1 point. Differences between the top and bottom school are modest in ELA (3 points), wider in math (9 points) and largest in science (22 points).

Recent results generally improved relative to the state, but not at every school in every subject. The three-school average rose 4 points in ELA, 4 in math and 6 in science from 2024–25 to 2025–26; the state improved less in ELA and math, while its science rate fell by 3 points. Trail Ridge Middle School’s science score slipped by 1 point. Grade-level results also matter: some grades at each school fall below state rates even when the all-grades result is higher. SchoolDigger ranks Pioneer Ridge Middle School 103rd of 368 Kansas middle schools (4 stars), Wheatridge Middle School 123rd (3 stars) and Trail Ridge Middle School 161st (3 stars). Wheatridge has the lowest chronic absenteeism (9%), while student–teacher ratios are 11.4 at Wheatridge and 12.3 at the other two schools; these measures do not point to one school leading in every subject.