The top reported proficiency rate is 78% in English language arts. The lowest is 75% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Edgerton Elem
Edgerton Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fourth grade in the Gardner Edgerton school district, a system that covers the neighboring communities of Gardner and Edgerton in the southwest corner of Johnson County. The school is one of seven elementary buildings in the district, and after fourth grade its students move on to Pioneer Ridge Middle School and later to Gardner-Edgerton High School, both of which are located in Gardner rather than in Edgerton itself.
Edgerton is a small city that has been reshaped by industrial and logistics development. The BNSF Logistics Park Kansas City, a large intermodal facility, anchors an extensive master-planned industrial complex that has brought thousands of jobs to an area that was historically a small farming town. The city’s population has grown measurably in recent years, and it sits within one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. The elementary school sits in the community’s small downtown core along Nelson Street, where the municipal court and city offices are also located, giving the school a place at the center of local civic life. The housing market in the area reflects a mix of small-town residential character and the upward pressure from new development. For a family considering the school, the surrounding context is one of a community in transition, with a rural past and a logistics-driven economic future.
The student body at Edgerton Elementary is small relative to what many suburban elementary schools enroll. The composition is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up a noticeable share and smaller numbers of Black students and students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school serves prekindergarten through fourth grade, which means that state testing data is available only for the grades that are tested: third and fourth grade. Because the school does not serve higher grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The lack of data on students with disabilities or English learners is a gap that a parent may want to explore directly with the school.
On the state assessments administered through the Kansas Assessment Program, Edgerton Elementary posted results that in several areas are well above the midpoint among districts in Johnson County. In third-grade reading, the large majority of students met the proficiency benchmark, and in third-grade math a similarly high share did. Fourth-grade results were lower in both subjects, with roughly two-thirds of students scoring at the proficient level in math and in reading. The overall proficiency index for the school, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, places it in the top quartile among the county’s districts. The state changed its cut scores for these assessments in the same year the results were reported, which means the scores cannot be directly compared to those from prior years. A parent looking at these numbers should understand the results as reflecting a single year under new standards, not a trend.
The district itself does not appear to have undergone any recent parent-relevant changes in programming, boundaries, or policy that were publicly reported. The Gardner Edgerton district operates seven elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school, and it educates students from both Gardner and Edgerton. For a family living in Edgerton, the elementary years take place in the child’s home town, while the middle and high school years mean a commute to Gardner.
For a parent or resident trying to understand what this school offers, the picture is of a small elementary school in a community that is growing and changing rapidly around it. The academic results in the early grades are strong, particularly in third grade, and the school sits in a district that is part of a well-resourced county. The setting is not urban or dense; Edgerton remains a small town in character even as industrial development accelerates. A family that values a small elementary school close to home, with solid early academics and a community that is still small enough that a school can feel connected to the town center, would find a good fit here. A family that wants a wider range of program options or a more diverse peer environment may want to look at other elementary buildings in the district or in nearby parts of Johnson County.
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