Park Elem, Great Bend KS - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Park Elem

Park Elem serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in Great Bend, Kansas, part of the Great Bend school district. It is an elementary school in a small city that functions as the county seat of Barton County and a regional commercial hub for central Kansas. The school’s enrollment reflects the broader community: about half the students are white, a substantial share are Hispanic, and a very large majority qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a student body with significant economic need. The school is one of several elementaries in the district, and the grade band means that after sixth grade students move on to a middle school.

State testing data is available for grades three through six in math and English language arts, and for fifth grade in science. Across tested grades and subjects, overall proficiency falls within a range that is below the midpoint compared to other districts in Barton County, landing in the bottom quartile. For math, proficiency rates vary by grade, with a notable dip in fourth grade, and in English language arts the pattern is similar, with fourth grade again showing the lowest rate. The fifth-grade science rate is also modest. These results come from the Kansas Assessment Program, and Kansas made cut-score changes in the testing year, so direct comparisons with earlier years are not straightforward. A parent looking at these numbers may want to ask the school about specific instructional supports and how the school is addressing these achievement patterns.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, discipline, and course access were not available. Because the school is a regular elementary, those gaps likely reflect reporting limitations rather than anything about the school’s operations, but a family interested in class sizes or attendance patterns would need to request that information directly from the school or district.

Great Bend itself is a community that has seen modest population decline in recent decades, but it remains the area’s commercial and government center. The housing market is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks; home values and rents are well below the Kansas median, and the cost of living overall is low. The district recently had no major publicly reported changes, so the educational landscape for families has been stable.

For a family in Great Bend, Park Elem is a neighborhood elementary school with a high-poverty student profile and academic results that a parent will want to understand in context. The school’s size is small, and it draws from the surrounding residential area in a city where most civic life centers on the downtown courthouse and nearby commercial corridors. The absence of program offerings in the data means parents should inquire directly about any special programs, enrichment, or support services the school provides. It is a straightforward entry point for elementary-age children in a part of Kansas where the cost of living is low and the pace of change is gradual.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 40% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 35% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 39% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 31%

▼ 9 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 49% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 40% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 41% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 30% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 36%

▼ 9 pts below state median

This schoolGreat Bend, 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 6Lower-income30%Higher-income27%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income27%Higher-income46%19 pp gap