Empire, KS schools
Empire’s public schools score above Kansas’s averages: 40% of students are proficient in reading against 35.5% statewide, and 92% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88%. Kids attend Soderstrom Elem or Ellsworth Elem through grade 4, then Ellsworth High or Smoky Valley Middle School and Ellsworth High or Smoky Valley High.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Empire’s School Grade: B
The public schools Empire’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, outperform 55% of Kansas’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they sit near the middle.
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.
Where Empire kids go to school
Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.
Above the state in reading
92% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years.
Two districts serve Empire
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
Colleges near Empire
There’s no college in Empire, but 5 colleges are within 30 miles. The closest is Bethany College in Lindsborg, 20.5 miles away.
Straight-line distance from the center of Empire. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus.
We don’t have any schools located in Empire yet.