The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in English language arts. The lowest is 66% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Aspen Grove Elementary
Aspen Grove Elementary is a brand new school in the Blue Valley district, having opened its doors for the 2024-25 school year to serve a growing pocket of southern Overland Park. For a family looking at this school, the most important thing to know is that there is no track record yet, only a strong set of first impressions from its inaugural year of data.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade in a rapidly growing portion of a large, car-dependent suburban city. Overland Park is Kansas’s second-most populous city and functions as a major residential and employment hub for the Kansas City metro. The area around Aspen Grove is mostly new subdivisions, reflecting the greenfield suburban development that has driven the city's decades-long expansion. Homes in this zip code are priced well above both the state and national averages, and the cost of entry is high. The area’s daytime population swells with commuters, anchored by major employers like T-Mobile, Black & Veatch, and a large health care sector.
Academically, what is available points to a very strong start. On the Kansas state assessments, proficiency rates were well above what is typical for the state. Reading and English language arts scores were particularly high, with the fourth-grade cohort hitting a very strong mark and the third-grade group close behind. Fifth-grade reading was also solid, though a step down from the earlier grades. In math, the pattern was similar: fourth graders posted strong results, third graders were not far behind, and fifth graders showed a clear dip. Fifth-grade science proficiency matched that grade’s reading and math levels, suggesting a cohort-wide soft spot rather than a subject-specific one. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports students as they move into the upper elementary grades, where the data shows a bit of a slide.
Still, these results must be taken in context. The cut scores for the Kansas assessment changed in this school year, which means year-over-year comparisons are not reliable. The school has only one year of data, so there is no trajectory to examine. And the student body is small and demographically very homogeneous. Almost all students are white. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is tiny, and the school is located in an affluent section of an already affluent district. In short, the test scores reflect the advantages of the student population as much as anything the school does.
Because it is a K-5 school, there is no graduation rate, no high school course access data, and no data on programs like AP or career pathways. Discipline and chronic absenteeism data were not available.
The Blue Valley district itself is a well regarded, high-performing system. Voters recently approved a large bond issue for facility and safety upgrades without a tax rate increase. The district also adopted a new K-5 literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading, which Aspen Grove would have launched with from day one. And for the third consecutive year, the district’s budget held the property tax mill levy flat.
This school is a very strong academic fit for a family that can afford the housing in its attendance zone, values a new building and a high-resource district, and is comfortable with a student peer group that is both small and lacks much economic or racial diversity. The big unknown is how the school will perform as it matures, gets a full complement of grades with a longer history, and faces whatever enrollment growth brings.
See more original research from School Decision →