Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
What this means: On the KAP, Kansas's statewide test, about 35 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 28 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Kansas schools, those numbers are about 45 and 39. Reading and writing scores are up about 20 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 14 points.
What this means: About 24% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 18% 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%.
Located at 1301 SE Monroe St, in Topeka, Kansas, Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School is an average-sized elementary-level community that instructs 447 students (grades pre-K through 5), one of the schools within Topeka Public Schools. Compared to the state average of about 313 students per school, that is 43% bigger than typical.
Within Topeka Public Schools, which oversees 25 schools and 11,695 students, Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School is one campus in the system.
On the student-mix side, Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School logs that 31% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school logs 26% Black, 20% multiracial, 20% White. The wider county runs roughly 14% Hispanic, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Hispanic than the area baseline.
On the resource side, Staff filings list 41 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.8:1 students per teacher. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.2:1, putting Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School tighter than the state norm the norm. Roughly 93% of students at Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Shawnee County (around 54%), the school's rate is somewhat above typical.
On a demographically-adjusted basis, Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 17.7%; this one delivers 24.4%.
In the area at large, community-level numbers for Shawnee County indicate median household income runs about $67,104, about 32% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 9%. Across Shawnee County's 54 public schools (combined enrollment of about 26,294 students), Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School is one campus in the mix.
Nearest neighbor: Topeka High, around 0.8 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School comes 5th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 23.6%.
Geographically, the school is in a high-density area.
Over the past 7-year window. Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School's enrollment has ticked down 19% since 2018, when it stood at 555 (now 447). The Black share of enrollment declined from 36% to 26% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 12.7:1 in 2018 to 10.8:1 today.
In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
