Kc International-wallace, Kansas City MO

Original Research by School Decision on Kc International-wallace

KC International-Wallace is a charter public school in Kansas City, serving prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the KC International Academy network, a charter organization whose oversight was transferred in 2022 from the University of Central Missouri to the Missouri Charter Public School Commission, a shift families may want to understand in terms of governance and contract renewal. The school is classified as a regular school, not an alternative or special-purpose setting, so the usual academic accountability measures apply.

The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, and White students. Every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of the high concentration of poverty this school serves. The enrollment across grades is fairly even from kindergarten through eighth grade, with a small prekindergarten program. Given the grade band, the school does not have a graduation rate to report.

On the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests for grades three through eight, proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science are consistently low. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above ranges from roughly one in ten to about one in four depending on grade. In English language arts, the range is similar, with the highest rate reaching near one in four in eighth grade. Science proficiency is in the single-digit to low-teens range for the tested grades. Compared with other districts in Jackson County, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. Multi-year trend data is limited, with only the most recent year’s results available, so it is not possible to assess whether these numbers represent a shift from prior performance.

A parent considering this school should weigh the context: the school serves a student population facing substantial economic challenges, and the test results reflect that. The data does not include information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, or course access, so a family may want to ask the school directly about supports like tutoring, intervention programs, or enrichment opportunities.

The school is located in Kansas City, a major urban center that is car-dependent across its large footprint but has walkable cores downtown, in the River Market, and around the Country Club Plaza. The city has seen downtown residential development and streetcar expansion in recent years. Housing values in the school’s immediate zip code are very low relative to state and national benchmarks, consistent with the high-poverty neighborhood. The broader city offers a range of cultural institutions, parks, and a regional transit system, though school campuses are spread across neighborhoods rather than concentrated downtown.

KC International-Wallace is a full K-8 charter school operating in a high-poverty urban setting. The academic proficiency data is low, and the school’s governance structure changed a few years ago. Families looking into this school will want to understand what academic and support programs are in place and how the school measures growth beyond the state test results shown here.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 411%

School 11% · District 11%

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 515%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 25%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17%

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

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 7%

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

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

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

Grade 612%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 718%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 24%

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

Science

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 813%

School 13% · District 13%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

This schoolKC INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY, 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.