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What do you wish you knew before starting at Paola Middle?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
413
Middle
DISTRICT 433 · STATE 402
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PAOLA·NCES 201050000776
Paola Middle
405 Hospital Drive, Paola, KS 66071 · (913) 294-8030 · Miami County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE32-TOWNREGULAR SCHOOL413 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 71% of Kansas public middle schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Kansas public middle schools
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
32 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.5:1 · STATE 12.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
39%
163 students
DISTRICT 38% · STATE 51%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 118 | 29% |
| Grade 7 | 149 | 36% |
| Grade 8 | 146 | 35% |
Student demographics
23%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 23% · STATE 58% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Paola Middle→Paola High
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Paola. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
KAP 2024-25 . % Meeting + ExceedingEnglish Language Arts
45.8%
KS avg 44.5%
Math
44.8%
KS avg 38.8%
What this means: On the KAP, Kansas's statewide test, about 46 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 45 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Kansas schools, those numbers are about 45 and 39.
KAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45.8% | 44.8% |
| 2023-24 | 34.9% | 30.9% |
% Meeting + Exceeding, all students and all tested grades. Kansas set new KAP cut scores in spring 2025, so results from 2023-24 and earlier are not comparable with later years.
Source: KAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
39.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
43.3%
based on KS schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-3.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 40% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 43% typical for Kansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Kansas's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Paola Middle
Paola Middle's state test result (39.7% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paola Middle this school | 413 | 39.5% | 39.7% |
| Mulvane Middle School Mulvane | 404 | 36.9% | 34.5% |
| Eudora Middle School Eudora | 370 | 36.8% | 40.0% |
| Rose Hill Middle Rose Hill | 328 | 36.3% | 28.3% |
| Carbondale Attendance Center Carbondale | 370 | 44.3% | 31.6% |
| Prairie Hills Middle Hutchinson | 532 | 43.2% | 34.9% |
Matched among Kansas middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Paola Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Kansas |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 39.7% | #56 of 192 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 44.8% | #52 of 192 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.8% | #68 of 192 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 413 | #108 of 225 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.1:1 | #80 of 161 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 22.6% | #150 of 161 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 39.5% | #135 of 195 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.0% | #57 of 98 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
413
+15 (+4%) vs 2020
+17% since 1990-91, when it was 352
Student : Teacher
13.1:1
was 12.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 413 | 31.5 | 13.1:1 | 39% (163) |
| 2023-24 | 431 | 31 | 13.9:1 | 39% (166) |
| 2022-23 | 430 | 32 | 13.4:1 | 33% (142) |
| 2020-21 | 398 | 31 | 12.8:1 | 26% (104) |
| 2017-18 | 454 | 31.4 | 14.5:1 | 37% (168) |
| 2015-16 | 470 | 30 | 15.7:1 | 32% (150) |
| 2010-11 | 446 | 31 | 14.4:1 | 33% (149) |
| 2000-01 | 506 | 35 | 14.5:1 | 20% (99) |
| 1990-91 | 352 | 26 | 13.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Paola Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (454 to 413); teachers unchanged (31.4 to 31.5).
About Paola Middle
Paola Middle is a mid-sized middle-grades school in Paola, located in Paola, Kansas. It offers grades 6 through 8 and has 413 students enrolled.
The district, Paola, operates 4 schools serving 1,732 students.
The share of students at Paola Middle who are White is 88%. Other students are 6% Hispanic and 4% multiracial. Miami County residents are about 90% White, a similar share. A diversity index of 23% means there is a 23% chance two randomly chosen students at Paola Middle are from different groups.
The student-to-teacher ratio at Paola Middle is 13.1:1, based on 31.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. The average for middle schools in Kansas is about 12.7:1. Paola Middle counts 39% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That is in line with the 36% average for public schools in Miami County.
Among Kansas public middle schools, Paola Middle outscored 71%, which works out to a B+ on the allk12 Grade.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Paola Middle is 3.6 points below the average proficiency rate across its state test results predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 39.7% actual, 43.3% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Kansas.
Census data for Miami County show median household income comes to about $89,000, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 31%, and about 6% of people live in poverty. There are 17 public schools in the county, enrolling about 6,529, Paola Middle among them.
About 0.3 miles separate Paola Middle from the closest public school, Paola High. Within five miles are 3 other public schools. Paola Middle is 2nd of 6 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
NCES lists the school's locale as Town: Distant. That means it sits in a town some distance from an urbanized area.
A 4% rise took enrollment from 398 in 2020-21 to 413 in 2024-25.
Anyone can start a thread about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures at Paola Middle. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Miami County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
34,938
Census ACS
Median income
$89,000
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
31%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
17
6,529 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Paola
- Paola HighHigh · 567 students
- Cottonwood ElemElementary · 379 students
- Sunflower ElemElementary · 373 students
Other schools in Paola
- Paola HighHigh · 567 students
- Cottonwood ElemElementary · 379 students
- Sunflower ElemElementary · 373 students
Nearby schools
- Paola High0.3 mi · 567
- Sunflower Elem0.3 mi · 373
- Cottonwood Elem0.6 mi · 379
- Osawatomie Middle School7.1 mi · 195
- Osawatomie High7.6 mi · 295
- Osawatomie Virtual School7.6 mi · 18
Frequently asked questions
About Paola MiddleHow many students attend Paola Middle?
Paola Middle enrolls approximately 413 students in grades 06-08.
Is Paola Middle an elementary, middle, or high school?
Paola Middle is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Paola Middle have?
Paola Middle employs 32 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.1:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Paola Middle?
At Paola Middle, the student body is approximately 88% White, 6% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Paola Middle?
Paola Middle is overseen by Paola in Miami County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.