Summary:
ZIP code 67017 has two schools in the Circle district: Circle Benton Elementary, serving prekindergarten through grade 6, and Circle Middle School, serving grades 7–8; the list has no high school. The schools’ current results show a stronger profile at the elementary level and a more mixed picture at the middle school. All-grade figures cover different grade spans, so they are not direct same-grade comparisons. The most important concern is middle-school math, where proficiency is below the state level.
Circle Benton Elementary stands out: its 2025–26 proficiency was 71% in ELA, 50% in math, and 59% in science—25, 9, and 21 percentage points above state results, respectively. Circle Middle School was near the state in ELA and science, at 47% and 39% (1 point above in each), but its 32% in math was 9 points below. The elementary school’s advantage is not uniform across grades: fourth-grade math was 32%, 12 points below the state, while its other reported math grades were above the state. School-to-school all-grade differences were 24 points in ELA, 18 in math, and 20 in science.
Recent changes were mixed, with math weakening at both schools even as some other subjects improved. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, elementary ELA rose 7 points while its math and science fell 10 and 15 points; middle-school science rose 5 points, while its ELA and math fell 2 and 4 points. SchoolDigger’s 2025–26 statewide rankings place the elementary school at the 78th percentile and the middle school at the 54th; the elementary ranking has remained relatively high, while the middle school’s fell from the 67th percentile in 2023–24. Context also differs: chronic absenteeism was 14% at the elementary school and 24% at the middle school, and reported student-teacher ratios were similar at 14.3 and 13.8. The middle school also had a higher free/reduced-lunch rate, 42% compared with 34%; these figures describe school context and do not explain results.
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