The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in English language arts. The lowest is 59% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Valley Park Elementary
Valley Park Elementary serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Blue Valley school district in Overland Park, Kansas. The school sits in the southern portion of this large suburban city, one of several elementary schools feeding into the district’s middle and high schools. Overland Park is a car-dependent suburb with a strong service-sector economy, dominated by health care, retail, professional services, and information technology. Housing values in the area are well above national and state medians, and the city has seen sustained growth through greenfield development and annexation. It is a place where residential subdivisions, shopping centers, and office parks shape daily life, and where the public schools are a central consideration for families choosing where to live.
Academically, Valley Park Elementary posts solid results on the Kansas Assessment Program, the state’s standardized test. Across the three grade levels tested, proficiency rates in English language arts land in the upper range, with a clear upward slope from third to fifth grade. Math proficiency is more varied, with fourth grade showing a stronger result than the surrounding grades. Science, tested only in fifth grade, also shows a healthy share of students meeting the proficiency benchmark. When compared with other elementary schools across Johnson County, Valley Park’s overall proficiency index sits in the top quarter of the district-level comparison set. The state changed its cut scores for the math and English language arts assessments in this testing cycle, so direct year-to-year trend comparisons are not yet possible. That said, the current results place the school on strong footing within one of the region’s most academically competitive counties.
The student body is moderately large for an elementary school. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, though the rate is lower than what many schools in the broader metro area report. The racial and ethnic composition is predominantly white, with meaningful Asian, Hispanic, Black, and multiracial populations also present. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the profile, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those programs and supports.
The community context matters for families considering Valley Park. Overland Park’s housing market is expensive, and the pattern of growth over recent decades has been steady, driven by corporate relocations and new office development. The city offers an extensive parks system, and the Blue Valley district has maintained a stable property tax rate, with no mill levy increase for several consecutive years. In the most recent school bond election, voters approved a major bond package for facility improvements, safety upgrades, and technology, without raising the mill levy. The district also adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading, rolled out district-wide in the current school year. A new elementary school opened in the southern part of the district to accommodate enrollment growth, which may shift attendance boundaries for some families.
Valley Park Elementary does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Discipline data, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism figures were not available in the profile. The school is not a charter or magnet school, and its Title I status was not provided. These gaps mean that a parent looking for a full picture of school climate or class size will need to supplement this account with a visit or a conversation with the school office. What the available data show is a suburban elementary school performing well above the county median in academics, serving a diverse but predominantly middle- to upper-middle-income attendance area, and operating within a district that has recently invested in facilities and curriculum. It fits a family seeking a strong academic start in a growing, relatively affluent corner of the Kansas City suburbs.
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