Schools · Downs

Downs, KS schools

Downs’s public schools score well below Kansas’s averages: 26% of students are proficient in reading against 35.5% statewide, and 92% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88%. Kids attend one of 5 elementary schools through grade 5, then Wellington Middle School or Caldwell Secondary School and Wellington High School or Caldwell Secondary School.

Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.

TownTapestry School GradeNew

Downs’s School Grade: C

The public schools Downs’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 67% of Kansas’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.

C-Test scoresB-Graduation
Kansas school districts we grade (283)Better than 33%
Lower resultsHigher results
Kansas towns with similar household incomes (796)Better than 30%
Towns in Sumner County (30)Better than 30%
High confidence. Built on 881 tested students and a graduating class of 124; ordinary year-to-year swings are unlikely to change the grade.
How the School Grade works
  • Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Kansas’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
  • The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
  • Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of Kansas only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
  • Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in Kansas with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
  • What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
School path

Where Downs kids go to school

Grades PK–5
5 elementary schoolsDepends on your address · see the list Wellington Unified School District 353

Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.

Test scores · 2020–21

Well below the state in reading

Reading (grades PK–12, Wellington Unified School District 353)26%
State average 35.5%
Reading (Caldwell Unified School District 360)32%
State average 35.5%
Math (grades PK–12, Wellington Unified School District 353)21%
State average 27.9%
Math (Caldwell Unified School District 360)22%
State average 27.9%
Graduation · class of 2020

92% graduate on time

Graduation rate
92%
KS: 88%
Graduating class
124
students

The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years.

Districts

Two districts serve Downs

Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.

Within reach

Colleges near Downs

There’s no college in Downs, but 1 college is within 30 miles. The closest is Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City, 27.8 miles away.

Straight-line distance from the center of Downs. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus.

We don’t have any schools located in Downs yet.

The door’s open

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Downs, KSSumner CountyView boundary

Nearby

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01