The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in English language arts. The lowest is 38% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Gray Hawk Elementary School
Gray Hawk Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Basehor-Linwood district. It is one of several elementary schools in this growing suburban community, located along the 158th Street corridor in Basehor, Kansas. The school sits within the Kansas City metropolitan area, and the district as a whole has recently invested in significant facilities expansion, including a new elementary school in Linwood that opened in 2022 and a major multipurpose building at the high school funded by a 2024 bond that is expected to double the school's size.
Basehor itself is a primarily residential suburb that has experienced sustained population growth over recent decades. The city has expanded its land area alongside its population, and infrastructure projects such as the 158th Street and Parallel Road improvement are underway to keep pace. The built environment is predominantly single-family suburban, and most residents commute elsewhere for work, with a mean travel time that reflects a typical pattern of a bedroom community. Civic anchors include the community library, the city park, and City Hall, all concentrated along the 158th Street corridor rather than in a traditional downtown.
The student body at Gray Hawk is majority white, with a smaller but notable share of Hispanic students and a modest portion of students who identify with two or more races. A relatively small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and English learner and special education counts were not available in the data provided. The school serves a comparatively young grade span, so there is no high school graduation rate to report—this is expected given the grade band.
On the Kansas Assessment Program tests for the most recent year, Gray Hawk’s results showed a mixed picture that a parent will want to examine closely. In English language arts, third graders met the proficiency standard at a rate that was notably higher than the national midpoint for that subject and grade, and fourth graders also performed at a level that exceeded a typical midpoint benchmark. Fifth graders, however, posted a proficiency rate that was below the midpoint, creating a pattern in which younger grades performed more strongly than the oldest grade in the building. In mathematics, the pattern was reversed in direction: third graders performed at a level near the midpoint, while fourth graders were below it, and fifth graders were even lower. Science, which is tested only in fifth grade, showed a proficiency rate that fell below the midpoint.
Overall, the school’s proficiency index, which averages results across all tested subjects and grades, placed Gray Hawk above the midpoint among the districts in Leavenworth County, though several of its peers in the county posted higher overall results. The trend across grade levels within the school itself is uneven, and the drop in both math and reading between the early and upper elementary grades is something a family may wish to discuss with the school to understand the academic progression. The state changed cut scores for math and English language arts in this testing cycle, which means the results are not directly comparable to prior years, so it is not possible to say whether this pattern represents a new development or a continuation of existing trends.
Gray Hawk is a neighborhood elementary school in a community that has been adding housing and students. Families looking at this school are likely evaluating it within the context of the Basehor-Linwood district as a whole, which has been expanding its facilities to accommodate growth. The school itself does not appear to have a specialized magnet or charter designation. For a parent weighing this school, the data available points to a building where early elementary literacy is a clear strength, where math performance across all grades and older-grade reading are softer, and where the overall standing relative to other schools in the county is in the middle of the pack rather than at either extreme. The district has been responsive to growth with new buildings, but that growth also means that class sizes and school boundaries may be in flux.
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