Delta Woods Middle, Lee's Summit MO

Original Research by School Decision on Delta Woods Middle

Delta Woods Middle serves grades six through eight in the Blue Springs R-IV School District, though its campus is located in Lee’s Summit. The school occupies a campus in the suburban landscape of a city that has grown steadily since World War II, transitioning from an agricultural community into a commuter suburb of Kansas City. Lee’s Summit is now the sixth most populous city in Missouri, with a mix of single-family housing neighborhoods, commercial corridors along the highways, and a historic downtown core that hosts festivals, an art walk, and a farmers market. The city’s growth has been continuous, and the school district is one of its major employers.

The student body is fairly large for a middle school, with enrollment distributed roughly evenly across the three grades. The composition is predominantly white, with a notable share of Black and Hispanic students and a smaller share of Asian and multiracial students. About a fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a moderate level of economic diversity.

Academically, Delta Woods posts results that place it well above the midpoint among its peer set. On the state’s MAP assessments, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile relative to districts in Jackson County. That is a strong showing. Looking at the individual grade-level results, performance in English language arts is consistent and solid across grades six, seven, and eight, with a majority of students reaching proficiency at each level. Math tells a more varied story. In sixth grade, a clear majority of students are proficient. By seventh grade, that share drops, and in eighth grade, fewer than half of test-takers meet the proficiency bar. This pattern may be one a parent wants to follow up on with the school to understand what support or curriculum shifts occur in middle school math. In science, tested only in eighth grade, the proficiency rate hovers around the halfway mark, a result worth situating in the broader context of the math scores for that same grade.

The district has made a notable investment in career-oriented learning. The former freshman center campus is being converted into a Career Innovation Center that will offer programs in fields such as aviation, business, medical and health sciences, gaming, teaching, and hospitality. This is a lasting expansion that will matter most to families with students heading into high school, but it speaks to the district’s direction and may influence feeder patterns or programming options down the line. The district also adopted a strategic plan covering 2023 to 2028, though the specific goals are not detailed in the available sources.

Housing in the area is expensive relative to state and national benchmarks, with home values well above the Missouri average and rental prices that have risen. For a family considering a move, this is a market that reflects the desirability and growth of the broader Kansas City suburban corridor.

Delta Woods is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. It does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on discipline, staffing, chronic absenteeism, and special education or English learner populations were not available, so those are gaps a family would need to fill by contacting the school directly. The academic picture that is available shows a school that performs strongly in ELA and early middle school math, with some softening in eighth grade math and science that bears watching.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 59% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 56% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 44% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 54% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 50% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 56% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Science

Grade 855%

School 55% · District 51% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

This schoolBLUE SPRINGS R-IV, 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 6Lower-income31%Higher-income66%35 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income44%Higher-income61%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income44%Higher-income67%23 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income51%Higher-income76%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income44%Higher-income65%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income34%Higher-income52%18 pp gap