Chase County Elementary School, Strong City KS

Original Research by School Decision on Chase County Elementary School

Chase County Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Chase County school district, which covers the small Flint Hills communities of Strong City and Cottonwood Falls. The school itself is located in Cottonwood Falls, roughly a mile from Strong City, after Strong City’s own school buildings were closed through unification.

This is a small school, as one would expect for a rural district serving a sparsely populated county. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest Hispanic population and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the area’s modest economic base.

On the Kansas state assessments, the results vary by grade and subject. In English language arts, third and fourth graders posted proficiency rates that fell short of a majority, while fifth graders reached a level where more than half met the bar. Sixth grade saw a drop, with fewer meeting the standard. In math, the picture was softer across all tested grades, with the highest proficiency in third grade and notably lower results in fourth and sixth. Science, tested only in fifth grade, matched that grade’s stronger ELA result, with more than half of students proficient.

These are mixed results that a parent will want to understand in context. Kansas changed its cut scores for the math and ELA assessments in this testing year, which means the results are not directly comparable to prior years. A family considering the school should ask about how the school identifies and supports students who are below the proficient threshold, particularly in math, where the dips across grades are more pronounced. The data does not include participation rates or counts of students tested, so it is unclear how many students these percentages represent.

The school offers no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate. The absence of a four-year graduation metric is a function of the grade span, not a programmatic gap.

The comparison set for this entity is relative to districts in Chase County, but the county contains only one school district, so no meaningful peer comparison is available at that level.

Strong City, where many students live, is a very small town that has seen little population change. The character is quiet and rural, with a few local businesses, a historic railroad and opera house, and a strong seasonal draw from the Flint Hills Rodeo and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Housing values in the area are well below state and national medians, making the area affordable relative to urban and suburban Kansas. A parent moving here should expect a tight-knit, low-growth setting with limited commercial amenities.

The district itself, Chase County USD, showed no publicly reported recent changes in the areas of curriculum, budget, or facilities. The elementary school operates as the sole primary campus for the district’s youngest students. A parent considering this school will want to speak directly with the school or district about current academic supports, especially in math, and about how the small scale of the school shapes daily classroom life and extracurricular opportunities.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 25 pts below state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 622%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 19 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 42%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 55%

▲ 11 pts above state median

This schoolChase 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 4Lower-income25%Higher-income57%32 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income60%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income18%Higher-income38%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income17%Higher-income14%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income40%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income0%Higher-income38%38 pp gap