The top reported proficiency rate is 18% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Linwood Elementary
Linwood Elementary is a public school in Wichita, Kansas, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Wichita school district. It is a neighborhood school located in a residential area of the city’s near-south side, not a magnet or charter school. The enrollment is large enough to support a full grade span but manageable in scale for an elementary building.
The student body is diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by white students, Black students, students of two or more races, Asian students, and a small number of American Indian or Alaska Native students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. This is a school where the student population reflects the economic and ethnic variety of its surrounding neighborhood, and where economic need is high.
State testing results are available for the most recent school year, though the data comes with an important note: Kansas changed its cut scores for math and English language arts that same year, which means the results are not directly comparable to prior years and the trend is not yet knowable. With that in mind, the proficiency rates in math and English language arts are on the low side. In each tested grade, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above is in the low teens to low twenties, and the fifth-grade science rate follows a similar pattern. On a proficiency index that averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, Linwood falls in the bottom quartile among elementary schools in Sedgwick County. A parent looking at these numbers should understand that the school is serving a population with high needs and that the cut-score change makes year-over-year comparison unreliable. It would be reasonable to ask the school what strategies it is using to lift achievement and how it supports students who arrive below grade level.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on discipline, chronic absenteeism, staffing ratios, and course access was not available for this report. Those are meaningful gaps; a parent considering Linwood may want to ask the school directly about class sizes, teacher turnover, and how the school handles behavior and attendance.
Wichita itself is Kansas’s largest city and a regional economic hub, heavily anchored by aerospace manufacturing. The built environment is largely car-dependent, with walkable pockets downtown and in Old Town. The school’s location on South Hydraulic places it well south of downtown, in an area of older single-family homes and modest apartment buildings. Employment in the city is tied to the cycles of Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, and McConnell Air Force Base. The housing market in the surrounding zip code shows home values well below the state average, consistent with the high share of students qualifying for meal assistance. Rent is also well below the state figure. For a family, this means the catchment area is among the more affordable parts of the metro area.
No recent district-level changes or strategic priorities were found in publicly available sources for the Wichita district. That absence is noted without speculation.
For whom does this school fit. Linwood Elementary is the assigned neighborhood school for a high-poverty area of Wichita. Its academic results are low relative to the county, and the context of a cut-score change means the trend is unclear. A family choosing this school would be doing so because they live in the attendance zone or because they value a diverse, neighborhood-rooted elementary experience. A family that places a high priority on strong state test scores would want to investigate the school’s academic supports and interventions before enrolling. The school’s grade band means it feeds into a middle school later, so a long view of the feeder pattern would also be relevant.
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