Summary:
ZIP code 67209 has one elementary school, Benton Elementary, serving prekindergarten through grade 5 with 273 students, so there is no second local school to compare it with. In 2025–26, Benton’s proficiency was higher than Wichita district results in all three subjects, but lower than Kansas results: 42% in ELA, 24% in math and 30% in science, versus state results of 46%, 41% and 38%. Math is the clearest concern: Benton was 17 percentage points below Kansas in math, compared with 4 points below in ELA and 8 below in science.
Benton is both the highest- and lowest-scoring school in the ZIP-code list simply because it is the only one; that does not establish it as a local leader or laggard. Its strongest reported grade-and-subject result relative to Kansas was fourth-grade ELA, at 43% compared with 50%, a 7-point gap. The other ELA gaps were 12 points in grade 3 and 9 in grade 5. Math gaps were larger in every reported grade: 20 points in grade 3, 22 in grade 4 and 20 in grade 5. Grade-5 science was 16 points below the state. There are no other ZIP-code schools for meaningful school-to-school comparisons.
Benton’s position relative to Kansas weakened from 2024–25 to 2025–26 in all three subjects, especially ELA: its ELA result fell 9 points while the state result rose 1, shifting Benton from 6 points above Kansas to 4 below. Its math result fell 1 point as the state rose 2, widening the gap by 3 points; in science, both results fell, but Benton’s gap widened by 1 point. SchoolDigger’s statewide ranking improved from 498th of 653 schools (24th percentile) in 2023–24 to 447th of 656 (32nd percentile) the next year, then dropped to 537th of 657 (18th percentile). Chronic absenteeism was 31%, close to the district’s 30% but above the state’s 18%. The school reported a 71% free/reduced-lunch rate and a 12.7 student-teacher ratio for 2024–25.
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