Kensler Elem, Wichita KS - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Kensler Elem

Kensler Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Wichita Public Schools. Located in Kansas's largest city, the school sits within a metropolitan area anchored by aerospace manufacturing and a broad industrial and service economy. Wichita itself is a sprawling, car-dependent city where most neighborhoods and schools are distributed across low-density residential areas, and Kensler reflects that setting.

The school enrolls a mid-sized student body for an elementary, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student population is diverse: the largest group is white students, followed by a sizable Hispanic population, and then smaller shares of Black, Asian, multiracial, and Native American students. This mix gives the school a notably multiracial peer environment.

State assessment results show a mixed academic picture, with several results that a parent may want to look into further. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above is below what many families might expect: it falls under a third for third graders, is lower still for fourth graders, and rises only modestly for fifth graders. In English language arts, third graders perform better than in math, with more than half reaching proficiency, but that rate drops sharply for fourth and fifth graders. Science scores for fifth graders land between the math and ELA patterns. The school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades, when measured as a single index, places it in the bottom quarter of schools relative to districts in Sedgwick County. A complicating factor is that Kansas changed its cut scores for both math and ELA in the assessment cycle, which means the results may not be directly comparable with prior years, and a trend is not yet clear.

Because Kensler serves only elementary grades, there are no graduation data and no chronic absenteeism information available in the public record. The district brief did not include recent strategic changes or facility updates, so that part of the picture is missing. The school does not appear to be a charter school.

Housing in the surrounding zip code is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, with home values and rents below the national average but slightly above the Kansas state median. This suggests the neighborhood is accessible to many working and middle-class families.

In sum, Kensler Elementary offers a diverse student body in a large urban district, but its academic proficiency numbers are soft across most tested grades and subjects, and a parent likely will want to ask the school directly about its approach to raising achievement, any targeted interventions, and how recent assessment changes factor into the reported results.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 20% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 19% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 19% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 36% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 32% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 25% · ▲ 20 pts above district

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

This schoolWichita, 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-income53%Higher-income62%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income45%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income41%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income24%Higher-income43%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income13%Higher-income19%7 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income29%8 pp gap