Belle Plaine

The Belle Plaine school district in Kansas consists of three schools: Belle Plaine Elementary, Belle Plaine High, and Belle Plaine Middle. The data reveals a mixed picture, with the high school standing out as a relatively strong performer while the elementary and middle schools face significant academic challenges.

Belle Plaine High School is the standout, ranking 70 out of 318 Kansas high schools and earning a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger. The school outperforms the state average in 10th grade English Language Arts and Mathematics proficiency rates and has a relatively low student-teacher ratio of 11.2. In contrast, Belle Plaine Elementary and Belle Plaine Middle struggle academically, with proficiency rates well below the state averages in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science.

Socioeconomic factors may play a role in the academic performance of the schools, as all three have high rates of free and reduced-price lunch recipients, ranging from 42.05% at the high school to 54.02% at the middle school. This suggests a relatively high level of economic disadvantage among the student populations. Additionally, the variation in spending per student and student-teacher ratios across the schools raises questions about the equitable distribution and effective utilization of resources, which could be a contributing factor to the performance gap between the high school and the lower grade levels.