The top reported proficiency rate is 55% in English language arts. The lowest is 43% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Maple Elementary
Maple Elementary sits in the Smithville R-II School District, serving students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in a community that has been growing quickly. Smithville is a suburban bedroom community within the Kansas City metropolitan area, a car-dependent town where the historic downtown district along Main Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but the day-to-day built environment is largely low-density residential. The population has roughly doubled in recent decades, and the city updated its comprehensive plan in 2020 to guide that expansion. Smithville Lake, a large reservoir managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, is the area’s major recreational anchor, and Route 169 links the town south into Kansas City.
The student body at Maple Elementary is predominantly white, with small percentages of Hispanic, Black, multiracial, Asian, and Native American students. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a generally middle-income range for its setting. The school is open to all students living within its attendance boundaries and follows a regular public school model. No data on programs such as gifted education, music, or after-school offerings was available, so a parent should look into those offerings directly with the school.
On the Missouri Assessment Program, the state’s standardized tests, results at Maple Elementary varied by grade and subject. In third-grade math, a majority of students scored proficient, while fourth-grade math showed a narrower majority reaching that bar. Fifth-grade math results were softer, with fewer than half of students proficient. Sixth-grade math results were suppressed and not reported. In English language arts, third-grade students scored below the majority mark, and the fourth-grade result was suppressed. Fifth-grade ELA was just under half proficient. Sixth-grade ELA was a clear bright spot, with a substantial majority of students scoring proficient. In fifth-grade science, a bit fewer than half reached proficiency. The overall pattern is uneven: younger grades and ELA in the upper grade showed stronger numbers, while fifth-grade math and some earlier reading results were weaker. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports students who are below proficiency in those areas.
When compared with other elementary schools in Clay County, Maple Elementary’s overall proficiency placed it above the midpoint among the districts in the county. That is a useful reference point, but it is worth noting that the county has only a handful of districts, so a middle-of-the-pack placement still means variation across the schools is present.
The school serves only pre-K through sixth grade, so there is no graduation rate to report. With no high school grades on site, postsecondary outcomes and college readiness are not relevant measures for this building.
The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as boundary adjustments, program overhauls, or leadership shifts that might affect a family’s experience. That absence is not unusual for a stable district. A parent considering Maple Elementary will want to confirm current class sizes, teacher experience levels, and enrichment opportunities, none of which were part of the available data. The housing market in the area reflects solid demand. Home values in Smithville are well above the state median, and rents are correspondingly high, consistent with the broader Kansas City metro’s price pressures. For a family buying a home in the attendance zone, the cost of entry is meaningful but typical for an affluent suburban corridor.
What this adds up to is a mid-sized elementary school in a rapidly developing suburb where academic performance on state tests is mixed, with a few strong spots and a few softer ones. The student body is not particularly diverse, and the economic profile is comfortable for most families in the district. The school is part of a district that did not have visible upheaval or announced reform. For a family that values a traditional suburban setting, a relatively new housing stock, and a school that lands around the middle of the county pack, Maple Elementary fits that profile. A family concerned about the weak fifth-grade and early reading scores should look more closely at how the school diagnoses and addresses those gaps before enrolling.
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