Olanthe Unified School District #233 is located in Johnson County Kansas southwest
of Kansas City and is configured like many school districts in Kansas: there are four
high schools with the accurate but rather plain names of Olathe East, Olathe North,
Olathe Northeast and Olathe South. These are fed from eight junior highs, which are
fed, in turn, from more than 35 elementary schools. The attendance rate is high: over
95% - as are, as one might expect, graduation rates - also nearly 95 percent. As
previously noted, we are not persuaded attendance and a diploma are sufficiently
challenging objectives. To be fair, they are far superior to the alternatives.
As working statisticians we are not overly fond of comparing SAT scores because not
every student takes the tests. Notwithstanding, we have a few 2008-2009 SAT scores to
share (recall you get 200 to sign your name; top is 800 and 500 is average):
Reading
|
Math
|
Writing
|
|
629
|
615
|
609
|
Olathe East
|
614
|
642
|
583
|
Olathe North
|
587
|
593
|
569
|
Olathe Northeast
|
562
|
568
|
542
|
Olathe South
|
598
|
602
|
576
|
District average
|
581
|
589
|
564
|
Kansas
|
501
|
515
|
493
|
United States
|
|
It appears Olathe South
needs a little extra help,
but overall, the schools
have good scores.
Kansas as a state has
slightly better scores
than most. The national
scores, by contrast, are
dismal. We would
expect significant
declines in national
scores going forward.