Summary:
Smith Center has one elementary school, Smith Center Elementary, serving prekindergarten through grade 6 and enrolling 253 students, so families have one local school rather than several to compare. The school’s 2025–2026 proficiency rates were above Kansas’s in all three reported subjects: 70% in English language arts (ELA), 52% in mathematics, and 69% in science, compared with state rates of 46%, 41%, and 38%. The most important finding is that the school outperformed the state across every reported subject, with its largest lead in science.
Because it is the only school in the area, Smith Center Elementary is both the local standout and the only option; there is no meaningful local top-to-bottom comparison. Its advantages over the state were 25 percentage points in ELA, 11 in mathematics, and 31 in science. It also exceeded the supplied Smith Center district rates by 7, 10, and 17 points, respectively. SchoolDigger ranked it 137th of 657 schools, in the 79th percentile, and gave it four stars in 2025–2026.
Results improved overall, but mathematics was the exception. From the prior year, ELA rose 4 percentage points and science rose 19, while mathematics was nearly unchanged; the school’s average across the three subjects increased by 8 points, compared with virtually no change statewide. Grade-level math results also varied: the school was 1 and 3 points below the state in grades 3 and 4, but 27 and 14 points above it in grades 5 and 6. SchoolDigger’s ranking improved by 104 places and 16 percentile points since 2023–2024. Other context includes a 12:1 student–teacher ratio, a 52% free/reduced-lunch rate, and chronic absenteeism of 13%, below the state’s 18% and the district’s 16%.
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