The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in Science. The lowest is 10% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Center Elem.
Center Elem. is a regular public elementary school in Kansas City, Missouri, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Center 58 school district. The school is a regular public school; it is not a charter school. Given its grade range, there is no graduation rate to report, which is typical for an elementary school, and that metric does not apply here.
The student body is relatively small for a K-5 building. The racial and ethnic composition shows a predominantly Black student population, followed by a substantial group of Hispanic students, and smaller numbers of white students and students identifying as two or more races. Every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the profile, so a parent who needs to know about those supports should ask the school directly. The school is located in Kansas City, a major urban center that is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. Kansas City’s overall character is car-dependent, though there are walkable pockets downtown and in some historic districts. The city has a large footprint and a mix of neighborhoods, with civic and cultural anchors spread widely. Housing in the area served by the school is at a cost that is below the state median home value and below the national median, making it one of the more affordable parts of the Kansas City metro. Rents are similarly lower than national benchmarks.
The academic picture from the most recent state testing is the central feature a parent will want to understand. On the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests, proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grade levels are low. In third-grade math, roughly one in eight students scored proficient or above. In fifth-grade math, it was about one in thirteen. In English language arts, third-grade proficiency was about one in nine, and fourth-grade proficiency was about one in fifty, the weakest reported result. Fifth-grade ELA was slightly stronger at roughly one in six students proficient. In fifth-grade science, about one in eight students met the bar. Looking at the school's performance relative to other districts in Jackson County, the overall proficiency index places Center Elem. in the bottom quartile. This is a straightforward reading of the numbers; a parent should understand that typical academic performance at this school is well below county averages.
A parent considering this school should weigh the very affordable housing linked to this attendance zone against these academic results. The school’s student body is entirely low-income as measured by meal assistance, which is a significant contextual factor, though the data does not speak to how the school addresses that challenge through programs or supports. Because the district brief found no specific recent changes, bond issues, or curricular shifts to report, the picture is static from the data provided. A family looking for a school with strong state test scores relative to its peers would find this a difficult fit. A family whose priority is a neighborhood school in an inexpensive part of the city, and who is prepared to supplement academic instruction or investigate the school’s own support systems directly, would want to visit and ask probing questions about how the school is working to raise proficiency. The data available gives a clear, sobering account of the academic landscape, and there is no evidence of advanced programs or specialized offerings in the profile to offset it.
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