Cedar Hills Elementary, Overland Park KS

Original Research by School Decision on Cedar Hills Elementary

Cedar Hills Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade within the Blue Valley school district, located in the southern part of Overland Park. Overland Park is a large, fast-growing suburban city and a major employment hub in the Kansas City metro area, with a service-sector economy anchored by health care, retail, information technology, and corporate headquarters such as T-Mobile. The city has a car-dependent suburban fabric of subdivisions, shopping centers, and office parks, and its housing market is expensive—well above state and national benchmarks for home values. The Blue Valley district recently passed a bond for facility and safety improvements, adopted a new science-of-reading literacy curriculum district-wide for elementary grades, and opened an elementary school in the southern part of the district to accommodate growth, all without increasing the property tax levy for several consecutive years.

Academically, Cedar Hills Elementary posts strong results. Across the tested grades and subjects, the school’s overall proficiency places it in the top tier among elementary schools in Johnson County districts. In both math and English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above sits near or above the county median for each grade level. Science results for fifth graders follow a similar pattern. Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The state assessment data comes from the Kansas Assessment Program, and readers should note that Kansas adjusted cut scores for math and English language arts in recent years, which can affect year-over-year comparability. The data available does not include participation rates or average scale scores, so a parent may want to ask the school for more detail about how testing is administered and what the full score distribution looks like.

Enrollment is on the larger side for a K-5 school, with roughly balanced class sizes across kindergarten through fifth grade. The student body reflects the demographics of the surrounding community: the majority of students are white, and a substantial share are Asian. Smaller percentages of students identify as two or more races, Hispanic, Black, or American Indian. A small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which aligns with the high-cost housing in the area. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in this profile, so a family with specific support needs would want to inquire directly with the school about these programs.

The school sits in a neighborhood with home values far above the national median, and the local housing market shows continued appreciation. The typical mortgage payment in this zip code, even after a substantial down payment, would be significantly higher than the typical rent, making homeownership here a stretch for many households. The broader Overland Park area has grown rapidly through suburban expansion, and the southern part of the district in particular has seen new development, including the recent opening of Aspen Grove Elementary. Cedar Hills Elementary itself is an established school within Blue Valley, a district that enjoys a reputation for academic performance and has maintained stable tax rates while investing in facilities and curriculum.

The school’s strong academic results, low poverty rate, and placement in a high-performing district make it a natural fit for families whose priorities center on test-based proficiency and a suburban environment with good schools. The absence of certain data points—chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, staffing ratios, and special population counts—means a parent should not rely solely on this profile to assess the day-to-day school climate. A visit and a conversation with the principal would fill in the picture that test scores alone cannot provide.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 67% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 65% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 64% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 73%

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 73% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 76% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 70% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolBlue Valley, 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-income54%Higher-income76%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income63%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income13%Higher-income72%59 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income67%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income68%37 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income64%44 pp gap