The top reported proficiency rate is 20% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Emerson-hubbard Elementary Sch
Emerson-Hubbard Elementary is a regular public school in the small, rural village of Emerson, Nebraska, serving grades PK through 5. It is the elementary campus within the Emerson-Hubbard Public Schools district. The village itself is a compact agricultural community, founded as a railroad junction, with a small commercial core along Main Street and a car-dependent layout where most residents commute by personal vehicle. The school is likely integrated into or adjacent to the downtown area, given the village’s very small footprint. Major local industries include health care, manufacturing, and food services, and the village operates its own public utilities.
The school’s enrollment is small for its grade band. The student body is predominantly White, with notable shares of students who are American Indian or Alaska Native and students who are Hispanic. A modest portion of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on special populations, such as students with disabilities or English learners, was not available in the provided records.
State assessment results offer a mixed picture. In third-grade English language arts, a strong majority of students were proficient. However, in fourth and fifth grade ELA, as well as math and science across all tested grades, the proficiency rates were at a very low level; in several of those tested grade-by-subject combinations, zero percent of students met the proficiency standard. This pattern is unusual and warrants attention. The multi-year trend data, which aggregates all tested grades for each subject, shows that in the most recent year, the overall proficiency rate in ELA was moderate, while the overall proficiency rate in math was higher. The science proficiency rate over the available multi-year period was reported as zero percent in each year, a consistent soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school. The comparison fact-set notes that the cohort of schools in Dixon County is too small to make a reliable proficiency index comparison, so no county-wide academic benchmark is available here.
Because the school houses only pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, it has no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, course access, staffing, and discipline were not present in the records. For families considering this school, the most striking feature in the academic data is the extreme variation in outcomes by subject and grade level, with some strong results in lower elementary ELA and an overall decent math rate, but near-zero proficiency in several tested areas. This is a school where a family would want to understand from the principal and teachers what specific instructional strategies and interventions are in place for the subjects and grades where proficiency has been very low. The school district did not have publicly reported recent changes of lasting impact available in the search.
Housing in the Emerson area is notably more affordable than the national and state benchmarks, reflecting the rural setting. The area has seen modest population growth since the 2020 census, and the homeownership rate is high. This is a place where a family can find a lower cost of entry for homeownership compared to many other parts of Nebraska and the country. For a parent, Emerson-Hubbard Elementary represents a small, community-anchored school with a predominantly white student body, a rural agrarian setting, and a pronounced academic profile that requires a close look at which grades and subjects are showing strong performance and which are not. The school’s size and setting mean that families who want a close-knit, small-town environment may find it a natural fit, but the academic data points to clear areas needing attention and explanation from the school.
See more original research from School Decision →