Wakefield Elem, Wakefield KS - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Wakefield Elem

Wakefield Elementary serves kindergarten through eighth grade in the small, rural agricultural town of Wakefield, Kansas. The town itself is a compact, quiet community with limited commercial activity, located near Milford Lake and roughly a short drive from the Fort Riley military installation, which is the dominant regional employer. The civic anchors here are modest: a city park with camping, a public library, a local museum, and the Kansas Landscape Arboretum. The community’s population has been essentially flat for years, reflecting the stable to slowly declining trajectory common to many small rural Kansas towns. A parent considering this school should know the setting is quiet and the housing market is low-cost relative to national averages.

The school is part of the Clay County school district. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet. The student body is small for a school spanning kindergarten through eighth grade and is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population representing a modest share and very small numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report.

On the 2024-25 Kansas state assessments, the results vary by grade and subject. In math, proficiency rates generally fall below the midpoint of what might be expected, with a wide spread across grade levels. The lowest single-grade math proficiency rate is in fourth grade, while the highest is in third grade and, separately, in eighth grade, which is the top-performing grade in the school in math. English language arts proficiency rates are also lower than what families might hope for across most grades, with the highest proficiency appearing in third grade. In science, proficiency rates are higher than in either math or ELA. Fifth-grade science proficiency is a relative bright spot, and eighth-grade science is the strongest single result across all subjects and grades at the school. It is worth noting that Kansas changed its cut scores for math and ELA in recent years, which makes direct comparisons to prior years unreliable, and the data here represents a single snapshot.

A parent may want to look into the school’s academic supports further, especially in the middle-grade years where proficiency rates drop. The available data does not include information on special education identification rates, English learner numbers, discipline statistics, or staffing ratios. The school’s course access and program offerings were also not provided in this profile. These are meaningful gaps if a family is deciding based on a full picture of student support and enrichment.

In the context of its county, the school cannot be directly compared to other district-level peers because the cohort for comparison is too small. The only other entity in the county is not a useful reference point here. That means the state test results are the main quantitative measure available. On those, the picture is mixed: the strongest results are in science, particularly at the eighth-grade level, while math and ELA results across multiple grades are concerning for a family focused on academic proficiency.

For a family who values a small, rural setting and wants a K-8 building where their child stays in one school for a long stretch, Wakefield Elementary offers that. The town is stable and unpretentious, with low housing costs and outdoor recreation nearby at Milford Lake. The academic data, however, shows that students overall are not reaching proficiency at high rates, and a parent would be wise to ask the school directly about how it supports students who are behind grade level and what enrichment or acceleration opportunities exist before the high school years. The absence of program and staffing data leaves those questions open.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 49% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 44% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 52% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 45% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 28% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 61% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 48% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 53% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median

Grade 628%

School 28% · District 44% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 41% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 39% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 56% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 33% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

This schoolClay County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income15%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income8%8 pp gap