Wichita County Elementary, Leoti KS

Original Research by School Decision on Wichita County Elementary

Wichita County Elementary serves students from preschool through sixth grade in Leoti, the county seat of Wichita County in western Kansas. The school is part of the Leoti district, which also includes Wichita County High School. Leoti is a small, compact town in farm country, with a population that has been slowly declining over recent decades, a pattern typical of many rural western Kansas communities. The town’s economy is tied to agriculture, and the county government is a major presence. The school is integrated into the town rather than on a remote campus, and the community’s civic anchors include the Museum of the Great Plains and the Wichita County Fair.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic or Latino population, making the school a place where these two groups form the core of the peer environment. A significant share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives a sense of the economic context families are working within. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary school serving grades PK through 6, and the school does not have a charter or magnet designation, nor does it appear to have a Title I status on record. Data on special populations such as students with IEPs and English learners was not available.

On state assessments, Wichita County Elementary posted results that are worth a close look. In English language arts, proficiency rates were strong in the earlier grades, with a considerable share of third and fourth graders meeting the bar of Levels 3 and 4 on the Kansas Assessment Program. The fifth-grade result was solid, but the sixth-grade tally dropped below the halfway mark, which is a soft spot a parent may want to ask the school about. In math, the proficiency picture was steadier across the grades, with the highest rate in fifth grade and a moderate result in sixth. Science results for fifth grade were strong. Because Kansas changed cut scores for math and English language arts in this testing cycle, year-to-year comparisons are not reliable, so the data offers a single snapshot rather than a trend.

The school exits at sixth grade, so there is no graduation rate to report, and no high school course access metrics such as AP or dual-credit pathways apply here. Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not available, which means a family interested in those dimensions of school climate would need to follow up directly. The district’s recent changes and strategic priorities were not surfaced by publicly available records, so that part of the picture is absent rather than filled in.

Because Wichita County Elementary is the only elementary school in its county, there is no comparison set of neighboring districts to place it against on proficiency or other metrics. A family considering this school will want to think about the academic pathway that leads to Wichita County High School, the housing affordability in Leoti, and the fit of a small rural setting where the elementary grades show a range of performance, with some grades doing well and sixth grade standing out as an area to explore further.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 576%

School 76% · District 76%

▲ 35 pts above state median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 22 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 382%

School 82% · District 82%

▲ 29 pts above state median

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 74%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Science

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 29 pts above state median

This schoolLeoti, 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 3Lower-income82%Higher-income80%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income100%46 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income91%50 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income46%Higher-income50%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income59%Higher-income50%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income47%Higher-income100%53 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income67%Higher-income91%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income46%Higher-income79%33 pp gap