The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on R L Wright Elem
R L Wright Elementary sits at the center of Sedgwick, a small residential city that spans both Harvey and Sedgwick counties. The town shows a modest population decline from its 2020 census count, and its character is that of a compact rural Kansas community with a grid of named avenues and numbered streets, many of which remain unpaved. The city’s recent infrastructure focus, including a sales tax referendum to fund street paving and water system improvements, suggests a community working to maintain its foundation rather than one experiencing rapid growth. No major new housing developments were publicly mentioned, and information on major employers or civic anchors like parks and libraries did not surface in available materials. The school itself is a pre-kindergarten through sixth grade public elementary school within the Sedgwick Public Schools district.
Academic performance on the Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) shows a mixed picture that a parent will want to look into further with the school. In English language arts across tested grades, a share of students met or exceeded the proficient benchmark. In third grade, more than half of students performed at proficient or above, and the share held steady through fourth and fifth grades. Sixth grade looked notably stronger, with a substantially larger share of students hitting proficient or above. Math results were more uneven. Through grades three, four, and five, the share of students at proficient or above hovered in a mid range. But sixth grade math showed a sharp improvement, with a far larger share of students scoring proficient or above, standing out as a clear strength for that cohort. Fifth graders also took the state science assessment, and about half of them reached proficiency. The data does not include participation rates or how many students were tested in each grade, so it is not possible to say how broad these results are across the student body. The state changed its test cut scores for both math and English language arts in this testing year, which means the results cannot be directly compared to prior years. Nationally, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades landed in the top quartile among Harvey County districts, placing it on the stronger side of its local peers.
The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. More than two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a substantial low-income population. The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and has an enrollment of a size appropriate for a small-town elementary school. No data was available on the number of students receiving special education services or on English learner enrollment, and no staffing ratios, chronic absenteeism rates, or discipline records were provided.
The school is not a charter school, and no information was found on whether it is a magnet school or receives Title I funding. The district brief for Sedgwick Public Schools did not surface any recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary shifts, program additions, or facility plans, so the district context is essentially stable as far as available information goes. Housing in the Sedgwick area is priced near the state median, and home values have risen modestly over the past year, but the community’s small size and infrastructure concerns mean that a family considering the area should verify commute options and look into the street and sidewalk conditions that the city has publicly noted as needing attention. This is a school whose strongest academic showing comes in the upper elementary grades, where both math and English scores climb, and whose middle elementary performance sits nearer to the local median. A parent curious about this school will want to understand how the younger grades are building toward those sixth-grade results and what support structures exist for students who are not yet at the proficient benchmark.
See more original research from School Decision →