The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in English language arts. The lowest is 17% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on David Brewer Elementary
David Brewer Elementary serves first through fourth grade in Leavenworth, Kansas, part of the Leavenworth school district. The school occupies a building on North 17th Street in a city whose character is defined by a mix of residential neighborhoods, a historic downtown commercial district, and a very large institutional presence. Fort Leavenworth, an active Army installation, takes up the northern half of the city, and several federal and state prisons are also major features of the local landscape. The district the school belongs to is one of two that serve the city; Fort Leavenworth operates its own separate school system on the military post.
This is an elementary school with a student body that is predominantly white, with a substantial number of students who identify as two or more races and smaller shares of Hispanic and Black students. A large majority of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a marker of the socioeconomic context the school operates within. The school is not a charter and not a magnet. Data on whether it receives Title I funding was not provided.
The most concrete picture of student learning at David Brewer Elementary comes from the Kansas Assessment Program for the most recent school year. In English language arts, about a third of third graders and just under a third of fourth graders scored at the proficient level or above. Math proficiency rates were lower, with roughly a sixth of third graders and a similar share of fourth graders meeting that bar. These are statewide standardized assessments, and the state has changed the cut scores for the tests since the prior year, which means the results are not directly comparable to earlier years. A single older data point for fifth-grade science, from before the pandemic, showed about a fifth of students proficient; the school does not serve fifth grade now, so there is no current science result. The available data does not include how many students took the tests or their participation rates, and the school does not serve grades that have a high school graduation rate, so that metric is absent.
A comparison of David Brewer Elementary’s combined proficiency index against other elementary schools in Leavenworth County places it in the bottom quartile of the six schools for which data was available. This is a straightforward positioning within the local county context, not a wider state or national benchmark. A parent looking at these results will see that the school’s academic performance, by this measure, lags behind most of its county peers.
No data was available on chronic absenteeism, on discipline rates, or on course access and staffing levels. The district brief from publicly reported sources turned up no recent changes in curriculum, property taxes, or school boundaries that would be of high interest to a parent. That does not mean nothing has changed, only that no such information was surfaced in the search conducted.
For a family considering this school, the most important factors are the academic starting point and the local setting. The school serves early elementary grades in a district that is part of a government- and military-anchored town. Proficiency rates are low relative to other schools in the county, especially in math. The school draws a student population where economic disadvantage is common. The strengths of the school do not emerge from the test data available, and a parent researching options would likely want to visit the building, talk to staff about instruction and support, and understand what resources the school brings to bear on its core academic mission. This is a school where attentive follow-up about how students are progressing and what interventions are in place would be a natural step.
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