Sterling Junior High/Senior High

Set in Sterling, Kansas, Sterling Junior High/Senior High is a compact 9-12 campus, run under Sterling. It teaches 232 students across grades 7 through 12. By comparison, Kansas's public schools average about 410 students each, so Sterling Junior High/Senior High sits 43% smaller than that benchmark.

Sterling Junior High/Senior High is one of 2 schools operated by Sterling, a district that hosts 500 students overall.

In terms of who attends, Sterling Junior High/Senior High shows that 94% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority. Other groups include 3% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 79% White, putting the school's mix visibly more White than the area baseline.

On the resource side, Sterling Junior High/Senior High records 20 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 11.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. Roughly 38% of students at Sterling Junior High/Senior High qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Rice County (around 58%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Sterling Junior High/Senior High performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 44.0%, the actual is 43.3%, a residual of -0.7 points.

In the broader community, the surrounding county (Rice County) records that the typical household earns roughly $63,925 per year, roughly 26% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Sterling Junior High/Senior High is one of 11 public schools in Rice County (combined enrollment of about 1,434 students).

The closest other public school is Sterling Grade School, roughly 0.6 miles away. Within ten miles, there are 7 other public schools, a sparser pattern than typical urban areas. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Sterling Junior High/Senior High at 3rd of 8; the average score across the group is 36.7%.

The school occupies a rural site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count stayed largely flat: 232 students in 2018 compared to 232 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 10.4:1 in 2018 to 11.5:1 today.

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