Sunnyside Elem, Dodge City KS - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Sunnyside Elem

Sunnyside Elem serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Dodge City, Kansas. It is a regular public elementary school, neither a charter nor a magnet. The enrollment is small for a PK-5 school. The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic or Latino, with a very small share of White students and even fewer Black or multiracial students. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, marking this as a high-poverty school. Data on English learner status and special education enrollment were not available in this profile.

On the Kansas state assessments, which recently underwent a cut-score change that makes year-to-year comparisons uncertain, proficiency rates are low across all tested grades and subjects. In reading and language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above is roughly one in three in third grade, drops to about one in four in fourth grade, and falls to roughly one in seven in fifth grade. In mathematics, the pattern is even lower: roughly one in seven third graders meets the bar, about one in five fourth graders does, and only a very small fraction of fifth graders are proficient. In science, tested only in fifth grade, the proportion proficient is similarly very low.

When placed against other districts in Ford County, Sunnyside Elem’s combined proficiency across subjects and grades lands in the bottom quartile. The comparison set includes four districts, but only three had reported proficiency data. No chronic absenteeism rate or graduation rate is available for this school; graduation data does not apply to an elementary campus.

The school sits in Dodge City, a mix of industrial meatpacking, agricultural services, and tourism anchored by Old West heritage attractions. Major employers are large meatpacking plants. Housing values in the area are below both the state and national medians and have dipped slightly in the past year. The city’s population has been essentially flat to slightly declining. No recent district-level changes with lasting impact on families were found in public records.

Because the profile lacks data on staffing ratios, discipline incidents, course offerings, English learner services, and special education supports, a parent considering this school may want to ask the school directly about class sizes, how the school supports students learning English, what intervention programs exist for students below grade level, and what enrichment opportunities are available. The academic results suggest that most students are not reaching grade-level benchmarks, and a family would likely want to understand what the school is doing to address that gap and how they communicate progress to parents.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 26% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 18% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 55%

School 5% · District 24% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 33% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 16 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 22% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 29% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 32% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median

This schoolDodge City, 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.