UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER

UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER, a large elementary campus in KANSAS CITY, Missouri, overseen by UNIVERSITY ACADEMY, educates 609 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 315 students per school, that is 93% bigger than typical.

Across the 3 schools in UNIVERSITY ACADEMY (1,111 students total), UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER lists that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (94%); the rest looks like 3% White, 2% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 39 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 12.4:1 average. About 100% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Jackson County runs at roughly 60%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 49.4%, the actual is 54.8%, a residual of +5.3 points.

Around the school, census data for Jackson County shows median household income runs about $68,577, 34% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Jackson County's 244 public schools (combined enrollment of about 105,714 students), UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER is one campus in the mix.

UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-MIDDLE is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER ranks 5th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 56.0%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area. UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER is a charter school, which puts it inside the public-school system but outside the standard district-managed model.

Trend over the last 7 years. UNIVERSITY ACADEMY-LOWER's enrollment has ticked down 6% since 2018, when it stood at 649 (now 609).

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.