The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Frances Willard Elem
Frances Willard Elem is a public elementary school in Arkansas City, Kansas, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Arkansas City school district. It is a neighborhood school, not a charter or magnet, and sits in a residential part of town on North 4th Street. With an enrollment in the low hundreds spread across seven grade levels, each grade typically has several classrooms of students.
On the 2024-25 Kansas state assessments, proficiency rates across tested subjects and grades fell below state averages by a wide margin. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or advanced ranged from under a tenth of test-takers in fourth grade to roughly a quarter in fifth grade. In English language arts, rates were more consistent across grades but remained in the low twenties. Fifth-grade science results were lower still. Kansas changed the cut scores for math and English language arts in this testing cycle, which means these results are not directly comparable with prior years and should be read as a new baseline. Even so, when placed against other districts in Cowley County, the school’s combined proficiency index lands in the bottom quarter of the six districts in the county. A parent exploring academic support might want to ask the school how it identifies and helps students who are below grade level, and what recent instructional changes accompanied the new state standards.
The student body is economically diverse and a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, one of the highest shares in the district. Racially and ethnically, the school is roughly split between White students and Hispanic students, with smaller numbers of students who identify as two or more races, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. This mix gives the school a noticeably diverse peer environment for a community of this size in south-central Kansas.
Arkansas City itself is a small city along the Arkansas River that has been reshaping its economy over the past two decades. Major industrial employers once anchored by a refinery and a meatpacking plant closed in the 1990s and 2000s. The largest employer today is Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, and a Walmart Supercenter and a new regional hospital have opened more recently. The population has been stable to slightly declining over the long term. Downtown has seen ongoing renovation work, including streetscape improvements and efforts to turn the historic Burford Theatre into a community arts center. Cowley College is located in the downtown core, meaning a two-year college campus sits within walking distance of many parts of town.
Housing in the area is affordable by state and national standards, with home values well below typical figures for Kansas. For a family buying or renting in Arkansas City, the cost of housing takes up a smaller share of income than in much of the country, which can make living in this school attendance zone more accessible. The district itself did not report any major recent changes to boundaries, programs, or facilities that are publicly available. What a family gets here is a small, neighborhood elementary school in a town with a working-class industrial and agricultural heritage, where the academic numbers indicate the school faces real challenges in bringing students to grade-level proficiency. A parent considering this school will want to learn more about how teachers and staff address those challenges day to day, and what the school offers beyond tested subjects, such as art, music, physical education, and early childhood programs in its pre-kindergarten classrooms.
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