Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 66509

ZIP code 66509 has one middle school, Royal Valley Middle School, serving grades 5–8, so families have no other middle school in the ZIP code to compare it with. In 2025–26, its all-grades proficiency was 38% in English language arts (ELA), 41% in math and 42% in science; Kansas rates were 46%, 41% and 38%, respectively. The most important finding is that those overall figures mask a sharp split: results are generally below state levels in grades 5–6 and above them in several grade 7–8 subjects.

Because it is the only local school, Royal Valley is both the highest and lowest in the ZIP-code group; its clearest strength against Kansas is science, while ELA is its weakest all-grades result. Science proficiency was 42% compared with 38% statewide, and math was nearly even at 40.7% versus 41.0%; ELA was 38% compared with 46% statewide. The grade-level pattern is more striking: ELA was 20 percentage points below Kansas in grade 5 and 12 points below in grade 6, but 10 points above in grade 8. Math was 16 and 11 points below in grades 5 and 6, then 16 and 14 points above in grades 7 and 8. Science was 10 points below the state in grade 5 and 9 points above in grade 8. Compared with the Royal Valley district, the school was 4 points behind in ELA and 2 points ahead in math and 4 points ahead in science.

Results moved in different directions over the two reported years: science rose by 12 percentage points, from 31% to 42%, while its Kansas comparison shifted from 11 points below the state to 4 points above. ELA fell by 1 point as Kansas rose by 1, widening the school’s state gap by 3 points; math rose by 1 point but ended essentially even with Kansas. SchoolDigger ranked Royal Valley 134th of 368 Kansas schools, in the 64th percentile with 3 stars, in 2025–26—up from 163rd and the 55th percentile the prior year, but below its 88th-place, 76th-percentile, 4-star showing in 2023–24. The school had 270 students, an 11.9 student–teacher ratio and a 54% free/reduced-lunch rate; chronic absenteeism was 10%, below the district’s 11% and Kansas’s 18%.