Hale Cook Elementary, Kansas City MO

Original Research by School Decision on Hale Cook Elementary

Hale Cook Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Kansas City Public Schools district. It is a regular public school located in a residential area of Kansas City, not a charter or magnet. The school sits within Jackson County and draws its students from the surrounding neighborhood.

The student body is diverse. White students make up a majority of enrollment, followed by a substantial share of Black students, a smaller but noticeable group of multiracial students, and a modest representation of Hispanic and Asian students. Every student at Hale Cook qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a concentration of economic need that places the school in a high-poverty context. The school does not report data on the share of students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.

Academically, Hale Cook shows a mixed picture across grade levels and subjects. On the Missouri Assessment Program, the school's strongest results appear in English language arts in the early and middle elementary grades. Performance in math is lower overall, and there is a notable drop-off in sixth grade, where math proficiency falls well below the school's average and where ELA results also decline. Science, tested at fifth grade, shows a comparatively stronger result. When the school's overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades is measured against other districts in Jackson County, it lands in the top quartile, meaning its combined performance exceeds the county median. That is a meaningful strength in the context of the district and the region, though the school's internal variation — with later grades performing more weakly — suggests that a family should examine how the school supports students as they move toward middle school.

The district context is relevant. Kansas City Public Schools regained full state accreditation in 2022 after a long period of provisional status, a publicly reported change that signals improved academic oversight and removes a degree of uncertainty that previously hung over the system. The district has maintained its accredited standing since then.

The neighborhood around Hale Cook is part of Kansas City, a major urban center with a very large footprint. The city is car-dependent overall, though pockets of walkability exist near downtown and commercial districts. Housing in the school's ZIP code reflects a market where home values and rents are moderate relative to national benchmarks, but the school's 100 percent eligibility for free or reduced-price meals indicates that many families in the attendance area face significant economic pressures.

Hale Cook is a neighborhood elementary school that serves a high-poverty student population and has shown overall academic performance that compares favorably to other school systems in the county, but with a clear pattern of weaker results in the upper grades, especially in math. A parent considering this school would want to understand how the school addresses that sixth-grade slide and what supports are available for students transitioning to middle school. The school’s strong English language arts performance in grades three and four suggests that foundational literacy instruction is a relative strength.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 19% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 18% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 14% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 615%

School 15% · District 22% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 20% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 18% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 20% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 17% · ▲ 39 pts above district

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

This schoolKANSAS CITY 33, 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.