Based on demographics, one would expect Blue Valley Southwest High School to outperform every other public school in the Blue Valley School District and certainly a mere public high school in Kansas City, Kansas, but it does neither.
For a guide to the school’s performance we turn to the easily understood A-F grades the Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) has issued for every school in the state. Although KPI has assembled the data, the grading is based on state assessment data generated by the Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) under the auspices of the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE).
Equal weighting is applied to a series of individual grades to calculate a Grade Point Average. Grades are assigned to a school’s performance on English language arts (ELA) and math, both for low-income students and students not low-income. For more information on methodology, please check the KPI site.
In most cases, the percentage of low-income students in a school determines its overall effectiveness. Blue Valley Southwest is an exception to this rule. Only 5 percent of its students are low-income, the lowest percentage in the Blue Valley District and quite possibly the lowest in the state of Kansas.
Despite that advantage, fewer of its students are college and career ready in either ELA or in math than any of the five high schools in Blue Valley. Sumner Academy, an oasis in the educational desert known as Kansas City, Kansas, comes very close to matching Southwest’s raw numbers despite having 73 percent low-income students.
To qualify for Sumner, elementary school students must have good grades, good test scores, good attendance, and a history of good conduct. The school also has an eighth grade class. This year seven of the ten eighth grade students who tested best on the KAP were Hispanic.
The students at Sumner are well motivated. The students at Blue Valley Southwest appear not to be. This is an issue the school’s parents might want to address.
Curiously, too, the best performing public school in Blue Valley–and possibly in the state of Kansas–has the highest percentage of low-income students in the Blue Valley district, and that’s Blue Valley North.
For the record, Shawnee Mission East outperforms every school in the Blue Valley District except North. Otherwise, no Shawnee Mission high school outperforms any Blue Valley High School, but all the Shawnee Mission schools, except East, have a much higher percentage of low-income students. The results:
Blue Valley North High has 1592 students, 12 percent of whom qualify as low income. 61 percent are college and career ready in ELA, 54 percent in math.
Low-income Grade 10 students received an C in ELA and a C in math. Other students received an B in ELA and an B in math. The overall 2017 Grade for Blue Valley North was B. The overall 2016 Grade was C.
Blue Valley High has 1577 students, 6 percent qualify as low income. 55 percent are college and career ready in ELA, 51 percent in math.
Low-income Grade 10 students received an C in ELA and a D in math. Other students received a B in ELA and a B in math. The overall 2017 Grade for Blue Valley was C. The overall 2016 Grade was B.
Blue Valley Southwest High has 1150 students, 5 percent qualify as low income. 41 percent are college and career ready in ELA, 49 percent in math.
Low-income Grade 10 students received an D in ELA and a D in math. Other students received a C in ELA and a B in math. The overall 2017 Grade for Blue Valley Southwest was C. The overall 2016 Grade was C.
Blue Valley Northwest High has 1592 students, 10 percent qualify as low income. 50 percent are college and career ready in ELA, 50 percent in math.
Low-income Grade 10 students received a C in ELA and a C in math. Other students received a B in ELA and a B in math. The overall 2017 Grade for Blue Valley Northwest was B. The overall 2016 Grade was B.
Blue Valley West High has 1534 students, 6 percent qualify as low income. 47 percent are college and career ready in ELA, 51 percent in math.
Low-income Grade 10 students received an D in ELA and a D in math. Other students received a C in ELA and a B in math. The overall 2017 Grade for Blue Valley West was C. The overall 2016 Grade was C.
Conclusion: In general, Blue Valley educates kids from stable, relatively affluent homes. They get decent results. All of them should be doing better,
