The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Math. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Emerson Elem
Emerson Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Kansas City, Kansas. It is a neighborhood school in the Kansas City school district, situated in Wyandotte County. The school is compact, with a modest enrollment consistent with a small elementary building. The student body is primarily Hispanic, with a notable share of Black students and smaller numbers of White, Asian, and multiracial students. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this a school where economic need is the norm rather than the exception.
The academic picture on state assessments, which use the Kansas Assessment Program, shows a mixed profile that parents will want to understand by grade. In third-grade math and English language arts, the share of students reaching proficient levels sits near the midpoint of the range at this school. Fourth-grade results follow a similar pattern, with just over half of students meeting proficiency in both math and reading. In fifth grade, math proficiency improves meaningfully, but English language arts outcomes drop by a noticeable margin, and only a small share of fifth graders reach proficiency in science. This dip in fifth-grade reading results and the science result are the areas where a parent may want to talk with the school about what supports are available.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No chronic absenteeism data was available, and no information was provided about disciplinary actions, staffing ratios, or special education and English learner counts. Because those context pieces are missing, a parent looking for a complete picture of the school’s climate and support structure may need to ask the school directly for that information.
Emerson Elementary sits within the Kansas City school district, which in late 2022 passed a significant bond measure for facility upgrades, safety improvements, and technology, the largest bond in the district’s history. That investment is actively shaping the physical environment and resources available to schools like Emerson. On the housing front, the area around the school has a mix of single-family homes and rentals. Home values and rents in the zip code are moderately below the national average, and mortgage payments are estimated to be somewhat more affordable than the typical rent payment in this part of Kansas City, which may matter to families considering buying in the neighborhood.
When compared against the handful of other school districts in Wyandotte County, Emerson’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands at the higher end of that county-wide range. That county comparison is useful but limited—Wyandotte County has a relatively small number of districts, so the spread is narrow. Still, the data shows that among the elementary schools in its county context, Emerson’s combined academic results are competitive, even if individual grade-level subjects show some unevenness.
For a family weighing this school, the core takeaway is straightforward. Emerson is a small, economically diverse elementary school where a majority of students are meeting state benchmarks in math and reading during the early grades, with fifth-grade reading and science representing the softer spots. The district is investing in its facilities, and the neighborhood housing is relatively attainable. A parent considering Emerson will want to probe specifically how the school addresses the drop-off in fifth grade reading and science performance, and how it supports students who arrive below grade level, since the economic profile suggests that many children come with additional needs that the school’s resources must stretch to meet.
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