The top reported proficiency rate is 32% in Science. The lowest is 13% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Richard Warren Intermediate School
Richard Warren Intermediate School serves fifth and sixth graders in the Leavenworth public school district, and the data available offers a clear picture of a school facing serious academic challenges. This is a school where a strong majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and state test results are well below the district and county averages in every subject tested.
On the 2024-25 Kansas state assessments, proficiency rates for reading and math are low. In math, the fifth-grade proficiency rate is in the mid-teens, and the sixth-grade rate is even lower, in the low teens. Reading proficiency is higher but still limited, with about a quarter of fifth graders and a fifth of sixth graders meeting the state standard. Science scores are the strongest of the tested subjects, with roughly three in ten fifth graders reaching proficiency, but that is still a low rate in absolute terms. These results place the school in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency when compared to other districts in Leavenworth County, a wide gap from the county median.
The student body itself is diverse. The largest group is white students, who make up a little over half of enrollment, followed by a substantial number of students who identify as two or more races, then Black students and Hispanic students in roughly equal shares. The school’s enrollment is around the size typical for a two-grade intermediate school, and it is not a charter or magnet school. Because the school only serves fifth and sixth grades, there is no graduation rate to report.
The school sits in the Leavenworth community, a city on the Missouri River with a distinct institutional character. Fort Leavenworth, a major Army installation, occupies the northern half of the city. The economy is heavily government- and military-oriented, with the fort, the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center, multiple federal and state prisons, the school district itself, and private employers such as Northrop Grumman and Walmart among the top employers. This mix of institutions creates a relatively stable local economy, though it also means many families in the area are connected to the military or corrections. The city’s 28-block historic downtown features locally-owned shops, restaurants, a winery, and coffee shops, and recent development has added new hotels and residential lofts downtown, alongside the replacement of the Centennial Bridge and a new building on the federal penitentiary campus. The city is also promoting an 81-acre business and technology park for future development. Housing in the area is moderately priced compared to national benchmarks, and rental costs are also near national norms, making this a relatively affordable market within the Kansas City region.
The Leavenworth school district operates seven elementary schools, one middle school, and Leavenworth High School for the city proper, while Fort Leavenworth has its own separate school district on the installation. The district brief turned up no recent referendum, curriculum, property-tax, or pedagogical changes that would have a lasting impact for parents.
A parent considering this school should understand the central fact: by the available state measures, academic proficiency is low across both grade levels and all subjects. The school serves a population where nearly seven in ten students come from low-income households, which often correlates with additional support needs. The district data does not reveal the share of students with individualized education programs or English learner designations, nor does it include chronic absenteeism data, so a family may want to ask the school directly about those support structures. For a child who is performing at or above grade level, the peer environment may not provide strong academic peers in large numbers. For a child who needs intervention, the school likely has experience serving students who need it, but the results suggest the existing strategies have not produced strong outcomes at scale. The city of Leavenworth offers a stable, government-anchored community with a walkable historic core and moderate housing costs, which may be attractive to families, but the school’s academic record is the more pressing factor in any enrollment decision.
See more original research from School Decision →