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What do you wish you knew before starting at Sunflower Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
570
Elementary
DISTRICT 449 · STATE 313
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LIBERAL·NCES 200873001589
Sunflower Elementary School
310 W. Pine, Liberal, KS 67901 · (620) 604-2800 · Seward County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY33-TOWNTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL570 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 21% of Kansas public elementary schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Kansas public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
23.3:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.6:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
87%
497 students
DISTRICT 88% · STATE 51%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 250 | 44% |
| Kindergarten | 50 | 9% |
| Grade 1 | 63 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 55 | 10% |
| Grade 3 | 57 | 10% |
| Grade 4 | 52 | 9% |
| Grade 5 | 43 | 8% |
This year's kindergarten class (50) is 16% larger than its 5th grade class (43).
Student demographics
23%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 23% · STATE 58% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
KAP 2024-25 . % Meeting + ExceedingEnglish Language Arts
28.4%
KS avg 44.5%
Math
21.8%
KS avg 38.8%
What this means: On the KAP, Kansas's statewide test, about 28 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 22 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Kansas schools, those numbers are about 45 and 39.
KAP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 28.4% | 21.8% |
| 2023-24 | 19.2% | 21.1% |
% Meeting + Exceeding, all students and all tested grades. Kansas set new KAP cut scores in spring 2025, so results from 2023-24 and earlier are not comparable with later years.
Source: KAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
24.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
20.4%
based on KS schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+4.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 25% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 20% typical for Kansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Kansas's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Sunflower Elementary School
Sunflower Elementary School's state test result (24.6% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower Elementary School this school | 570 | 87.2% | 24.6% |
| Cottonwood Elementary School Liberal | 500 | 89.2% | 20.9% |
| Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet Wichita | 643 | 84.9% | 27.3% |
| Miller Elem Dodge City | 780 | 86.3% | 32.5% |
| Prairie View Elementary School Liberal | 426 | 88.3% | 21.5% |
| Cloud Elem Wichita | 580 | 94.0% | 13.7% |
Matched among Kansas elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Sunflower Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Kansas | In Seward County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 24.6% | #540 of 625 | N/A |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 21.8% | #536 of 625 | N/A |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 28.4% | #560 of 625 | N/A |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 570 | #34 of 714 | #1 of 6 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 23.3:1 | #532 of 539 | N/A |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 22.7% | #473 of 540 | N/A |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 87.2% | #66 of 658 | #4 of 6 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.1% | #169 of 377 | N/A |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
570
+56 (+11%) vs 2020
+16% since 2010-11, when it was 490
Student : Teacher
23.3:1
was 21.4:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 570 | 24.5 | 23.3:1 | 87% (497) |
| 2023-24 | 560 | 22 | 25.4:1 | 90% (502) |
| 2022-23 | 582 | 22 | 26.4:1 | 83% (481) |
| 2020-21 | 514 | 24 | 21.4:1 | 76% (392) |
| 2017-18 | 671 | 32 | 21.0:1 | 88% (593) |
| 2015-16 | 569 | 35 | 16.3:1 | 92% (526) |
| 2010-11 | 490 | 33 | 14.8:1 | 91% (444) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sunflower Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 15% (671 to 570); teachers down 23% (32 to 24.5).
About Sunflower Elementary School
Sunflower Elementary School is a public elementary school run by Liberal in Liberal, Kansas. The school counts 570 students across pre-K through 5. The school's enrollment is 82% bigger than the 313 average for elementary schools in Kansas.
Sunflower Elementary School is part of a district of 8 schools: Liberal, with 4,653 students.
Hispanic students are the large majority at Sunflower Elementary School, with 88% of enrollment. Enrollment also includes 8% White. Among people living in Seward County, the Hispanic share is about 67%. The chance that two students picked at random at Sunflower Elementary School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 23%.
A ratio of 23.3:1 comes from the school's 24.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. For comparison, elementary schools in Kansas average 13.2:1. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 87% in 2024-25. Across public schools in Seward County, the average is about the same, 86%.
Measured against Kansas public elementary schools, Sunflower Elementary School receives a C-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Sunflower Elementary School falls in the middle 80% of Kansas schools: 24.6% actual against 20.4% predicted.
Federal survey data for Seward County show that median household income is about $63,827, 11% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Sunflower Elementary School is among the 10 public schools in Seward County.
The next-closest public school is Prairie View Elementary School, about 1.1 miles away. In all, 7 other public schools sit within five miles of Sunflower Elementary School. On proficiency, Sunflower Elementary School is ahead of the 16.4% nearby average, ranking 2nd of 8.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as Town: Remote, meaning it is in a town far from an urbanized area.
Sunflower Elementary School had 514 students in 2020-21 and 570 in 2024-25, an 11% rise. The student-to-teacher ratio rose from 21.4:1 in 2020-21 to 23.3:1 in 2024-25.
The Sunflower Elementary School community page is open for posts about school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Seward County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
21,486
Census ACS
Median income
$63,827
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
11%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
10
5,115 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Liberal
- Liberal Sr HighHigh · 1,421 students
- Eisenhower Middle SchoolMiddle · 516 students
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolElementary · 500 students
- Seymour Rogers Middle SchoolMiddle · 472 students
- Prairie View Elementary SchoolElementary · 426 students
- MacArthur Elementary SchoolElementary · 386 students
Other schools in Liberal
- Liberal Sr HighHigh · 1,421 students
- Eisenhower Middle SchoolMiddle · 516 students
- Cottonwood Elementary SchoolElementary · 500 students
- Seymour Rogers Middle SchoolMiddle · 472 students
- Prairie View Elementary SchoolElementary · 426 students
- MacArthur Elementary SchoolElementary · 386 students
Other Sunflower Elementary schools
8 other US public schools in 3 states are named Sunflower Elementary. Sunflower Elementary School is the largest of the 9.
- Sunflower ElementaryLawrence, KS · 444 students
- Sunflower ElemLenexa, KS · 390 students
- Sunflower ElemPaola, KS · 373 students
- Sunflower Elementary SchoolAndover, KS · 367 students
- Sunflower Elementary SchoolOttawa, KS · 333 students
Nearby schools
- Prairie View Elementary School1.1 mi · 426
- Seymour Rogers Middle School1.2 mi · 472
- Liberal Sr High1.3 mi · 1,421
- Cottonwood Elementary School1.8 mi · 500
- Meadowlark Elementary School2.1 mi · 362
- MacArthur Elementary School2.6 mi · 386
Frequently asked questions
About Sunflower Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Sunflower Elementary School?
Sunflower Elementary School enrolls approximately 570 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Sunflower Elementary School serve?
Sunflower Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Sunflower Elementary School?
Approximately 23.3:1 students per teacher at Sunflower Elementary School.
What is the student diversity at Sunflower Elementary School?
Student demographics at Sunflower Elementary School are roughly 8% White, 88% Hispanic, 1% Black, 1% Asian, 2% Two or more.
What district is Sunflower Elementary School in?
Sunflower Elementary School is part of Liberal.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.