Best Schools in Shawnee, Kansas

Shawnee, Kansas has 18 ranked public schools, giving families a meaningful range of options to compare. The city's average school score of 6.6 out of 10 sits comfortably in positive territory, and one in three schools — six of the 18 — clears a 7.0 or higher. That concentration of stronger performers gives parents realistic options without needing to move across town.

The top of the rankings is genuinely strong. Horizon Elementary leads all Shawnee schools with a 9.5 out of 10, a score that signals consistently high performance on the academic, growth, equity, and environment metrics that drive the ratings. Mize Elementary follows at 9.1, making Shawnee home to two elementary schools in the 9-plus tier — an uncommon pairing in a city this size. Belmont Elementary (7.4), Ray Marsh Elementary (7.3), and Broken Arrow Elementary (7.1) round out the 7-and-above group, all at the elementary level.

The pattern parents will notice immediately: every school in Shawnee's top tier is an elementary school. That means the strongest academic track records in the city are concentrated in the early grades. Parents with school-age children entering kindergarten or early elementary have clear high-performers to target. For families with older children approaching middle or high school, the data here is thinner — the top-five list doesn't include any upper-grade schools, so those parents will want to dig deeper into individual school profiles and look at how feeder patterns connect Shawnee's strong elementary programs to upper-grade options.

For parents starting their search, the practical move is to map your address against the attendance zones for Horizon and Mize first — both score in the top two slots and set a high bar. If you fall outside those zones, Belmont, Ray Marsh, and Broken Arrow all clear 7.0 and represent solid alternatives. The city's 6.6 average means roughly half the schools rank below that line, so checking the specific score for your assigned school matters before assuming neighborhood proximity equals a strong placement.