The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in English language arts. The lowest is 32% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on North Elementary
North Elementary serves students in third through sixth grade in Goodland, a small agricultural county seat in northwestern Kansas near the Colorado border. The school is part of the Goodland public school district and occupies a single campus within the town, which itself is a mix of residential and institutional uses. Goodland is home to Fort Hays Tech Northwest, a National Weather Service forecast office, and a handful of other civic anchors such as the High Plains Museum and an 80-foot steel easel displaying a Van Gogh sunflower reproduction. The surrounding economy is rooted in wheat farming and regional commercial services, and the city operates its own electric power plant.
The school’s enrollment is modest, typical for a rural Kansas elementary of this grade band. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a significant portion of families are working with modest household incomes. Racially and ethnically, the student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful Hispanic minority and small representations of Native American, Asian, and multiracial students. The school serves a single building, so all students in these four grades attend together without separate campuses.
On the Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) tests administered in the most recent school year, the proficiency results show a clear pattern. In English language arts, the third grade recorded a rate above half of students meeting the state’s proficient or above threshold. The fifth grade also posted a rate that was above the fourth and sixth grade marks in the same subject. In math, every grade level came in below half proficient, with the third grade at the highest and sixth grade at the lowest of the four grades. In science, which was tested at fifth grade only, the share of students scoring proficient or above was roughly a third. These numbers suggest that the school’s academic performance is uneven, with the strongest showing in early-grade reading and weaker results in math across all grade levels. Parents looking into this school may want to ask school staff about math instruction and support strategies, particularly for the upper grades where proficiency was lower.
Because North Elementary serves only grades three through six, there is no graduation rate to report. That metric applies to high schools, not elementary schools. Similarly, the school’s state testing participation rates were not available in the source data, so it is not possible to verify whether all enrolled students took the assessments.
The school’s district operates two other public schools in town: West Elementary for pre-kindergarten through second grade, and Goodland Junior Senior High School for grades seven through twelve. The web research did not turn up any recent district-level changes, such as boundary adjustments, program additions, or facility projects, that a parent would want to know about. The district brief found no parent-relevant changes from the last several years that clear the bar for inclusion.
When compared to other districts within Sherman County, the comparison set is effectively the school’s own district, since it is the only district in the county. That means there is no adjacent district in the same county to use as a benchmark. The comparison tool was therefore unable to position North Elementary relative to peers in that county, and the parent reading this should treat the proficiency numbers as a standalone measure rather than a ranked result.
Housing in the area is affordable relative to the national median, with the typical home value significantly below the U.S. figure, which reflects the broader rural High Plains housing market. Mortgage rates and rent indices are consistent with national trends. The town’s population has been stable as a small county seat, and no major new housing developments or growth projects surfaced in the research.
For a family considering this school, the picture is of a small, community-anchored elementary with a high proportion of students from lower-income households, English language arts results that vary by grade but have a bright spot in third grade, and math results that are a weaker area across the board. The school does not have the high school terminal metrics or broad program arrays that appear in larger districts, but as an elementary building it serves its specific grade band directly. A parent may want to have a conversation with the principal about how the school supports students who are not yet at the proficient level in math and what interventions are in place.
See more original research from School Decision →