The seventh annual “A-F Grading of Kansas Schools” has been released by the Kansas Policy Institute (KPI), owners of The Sentinel, and shows disappointing results continue in student achievement scores.
Since 2017, excluding 2020 when the state assessment wasn’t administered because Governor Kelly closed schools, KPI has translated raw scores on the state assessment reported by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) into letter grades based on KSDE definitions. Scores in Level 4, the highest on the state assessment, equate to an A, Level 3 scores get a B, and Level 1 scores, the lowest, are an F. The top half of scores in Level 2 are given a C and those in the bottom half get a D. Reading and math scores for low-income students and for their more affluent classmates are equally weighted in each grade level.
Using this methodology and assessment results from the 2023-2024 school year, this year’s survey of 1,248 public and private schools finds only two earning an “A”; one public, Timber Creek Elementary in the Blue Valley School District, and one private, Brookridge Day School in Overland Park. On the other end of the spectrum, 62 schools failed according to the grading system, 25 of them high schools, and more than half are graded “D”.
See how your school was graded here.
David Dorsey, Senior Education Policy Fellow with KPI, reflects on this year’s results:
“The A-F Grading system is critical because it reveals the real state of performance of Kansas schools. While the state board of education and KSDE lead us to believe that “Kansas leads the world in the success of each student,” our annual presentation and analysis of state-produced data tells a much different story regarding student achievement. In a world that is increasingly distrustful of bureaucratic government information (and rightfully so), it is essential to have independent voices like KPI’s to monitor and document realities. A-F Grading continues to be one such resource.
“A-F Grading continues to provide opportunities to explore questions surrounding the issue of school performance. Why do some schools continue to outperform others? Why does the education establishment continue to lobby fiercely against parental freedom to choose the best educational opportunities for their children? (Earlier this month, Tennessee became the 13th state to approve School Choice) Why doesn’t the elected leadership at the state level recognize the sorry state of student achievement and provide those options?”
