Best Public Schools in Silver Lake, KS

Silver Lake has two schools: Silver Lake Elementary, serving prekindergarten through grade 6, and Silver Lake Junior-Senior High, serving grades 7–12; each reports 355 students. In 2025–26, both schools were above Kansas averages in all three reported subjects, but the elementary school’s advantages were much larger. Because the schools serve different grades, their all-grades results are a snapshot rather than a same-grade comparison. The clearest overall finding is that the elementary school is the area’s academic standout.

Silver Lake Elementary had the highest all-grades results, with 75% proficiency in ELA, 79% in math, and 77% in science—about 24, 22, and 22 percentage points above the junior-senior high, respectively. Its results were also 29 points above the state in ELA, 38 in math, and 39 in science. The junior-senior high posted 51% in ELA, 57% in math, and 56% in science, leading Kansas by 5, 16, and 17 points. Grade-level results show why its averages don’t tell the whole story: eighth-grade ELA was 70% versus 42% statewide, while tenth-grade ELA was 34% versus 41%. Every listed elementary grade-subject result was above its corresponding state result.

Recent progress is mixed: averaging the two schools equally, math rose 3 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while ELA fell 1 point and science fell 5. SchoolDigger rankings also moved in opposite directions: the elementary school improved from 45th of 656 to 11th of 657 and now has five stars; the junior-senior high slipped from 39th of 332 to 131st of 340, from four stars to three. That ranking decline does not mean its current scores are below state averages. Attendance differs notably: chronic absenteeism was 4% at the elementary school and 17% at the high school. The elementary school’s student-teacher ratio was 12.3, compared with 10.7 at the high school; reported free/reduced-lunch rates were 24% and 21%, respectively. These figures provide context, not an explanation for the achievement differences.