Crestview Elementary, Kansas City MO

Original Research by School Decision on Crestview Elementary

Crestview Elementary is a regular public school in the North Kansas City 74 district, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits in the Kansas City portion of Clay County, Missouri, in an area that is part of the large, sprawling urban center. The city’s civic and cultural anchors—Union Station, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Kauffman Center, and the streetcar line—are a short distance away but the school’s immediate neighborhood is more of a typical residential setting within this major midwestern city.

The school enrolls roughly 400 students for its K-5 grade band, making it a mid-sized elementary. The student body is diverse, with white students making up the largest single group, followed by Black students, Hispanic students, students who identify as two or more races, and Asian students. A very small number of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students are also enrolled. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a high-poverty context.

State testing results from the Missouri Assessment Program show a picture where proficiency rates vary noticeably by subject and grade level. In English language arts, Crestview’s third and fifth graders reached proficiency at rates that were above the state average for elementary schools, a genuine strength for those grade levels. Fourth grade ELA proficiency, however, was lower. In math, the school’s performance was more challenged across all three tested grades, with proficiency rates well below what would be typical for the state. Fifth grade science results also showed a low rate of proficiency. When the data is combined into a single overall proficiency index and compared against other elementary schools in the same district set, Crestview’s index places it in the bottom quartile among Clay County districts. A parent considering this school would want to understand how the school supports math instruction and how its approach in the intermediate grades addresses the dip in fourth-grade reading results.

The district it belongs to, North Kansas City 74, covers a portion of the city north of the Missouri River. We looked for recent news about district changes such as boundary adjustments, bond issues, or curriculum shifts and found little of lasting import to report. The district appears to have been stable in its recent operations.

Crestview is a neighborhood school for a highly diverse, economically mixed community. Its strongest academic signal is in early-grade reading, where a notable share of third graders meet state expectations. The math and science results, along with fourth-grade reading, are areas where the school would benefit from additional parent inquiry about interventions and support systems. The housing context around the school, based on the ZIP code covering the area, is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks and has seen home values and rents rise modestly. For a family weighing options, Crestview offers an urban elementary experience with a varied student body, an income profile that qualifies it for federal Title I supports, and a testing record that points to pockets of strength in literacy alongside clear academic challenges in other areas.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 47% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 50% · ▼ 31 pts below district

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

Grade 521%

School 21% · District 48% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 49% · ▼ 8 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 51% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 52% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 46% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

This schoolNORTH KANSAS CITY 74, 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 3Lower-income33%Higher-income54%22 pp gap