Chase County Middle School, Imperial NE

Original Research by School Decision on Chase County Middle School

Chase County Middle School in Imperial, Nebraska, serves grades five through eight as part of the Chase County Schools district. It is a regular public school, and its enrollment is small. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population making up the largest minority group. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The community is a rural agricultural county seat in the southwestern part of the state, a compact town with a downtown business corridor and civic buildings like the county courthouse within a grid street pattern.

Academically, the school posts strong proficiency rates in math and reading across most grade levels, though performance is not uniform. In math, the fifth and sixth grades show high proficiency, while the seventh grade sits a bit lower and the eighth grade shows a meaningful drop. In English language arts, the sixth and seventh grades perform at a high level, the fifth grade is moderately strong, and again the eighth grade represents a significant decline. In science, the eighth grade shows strong proficiency, but the fifth grade had no students reaching the proficient level that year. A parent considering this school should look into the eighth grade dip across subjects and ask the school what academic supports or transitions are in place for that year. The multi-year data available is limited, showing only one year of results, so no trend can be drawn.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to examine. Civil rights data, including discipline figures and staffing ratios, was not available for this report.

Housing in Imperial is more affordable than national and state benchmarks, consistent with its small-town Great Plains character. The town’s population has been gradually declining, but the city has actively pursued development grants and housing programs, including a state rural workforce housing fund award, and promotes a pattern of young adults returning after time away. The district did not have publicly reported recent changes or strategic priorities to describe, so this narrative leaves that context unaddressed rather than guessing.

For a family, this school presents a solid academic pathway through middle school in a setting where most students meet state standards in core subjects. The eighth grade weakness is the main soft spot a parent would want to investigate directly. The peer environment is small and rural, with a student body that is largely white but includes a notable Hispanic cohort and a moderate level of economic diversity as measured by meal program eligibility. The town itself offers basic civic amenities, a few employers in agriculture and municipal services, and affordable housing, but limited street life and no public transit. This school fits a family looking for a small, familiar middle school in a low-cost rural community, where the main academic caution is the drop in performance in the final middle school year.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 584%

School 84% · district not reported

▲ 84 pts above state median

Grade 684%

School 84% · District 85% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 84 pts above state median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 84% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 79 pts above state median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 72% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 67 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 566%

School 66% · district not reported

▲ 66 pts above state median

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 76% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 74 pts above state median

Grade 779%

School 79% · District 84% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 79 pts above state median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 78% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▲ 57 pts above state median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · district not reported

even with state median

Grade 871%

School 71% · District 88% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▲ 71 pts above state median

This schoolCHASE COUNTY SCHOOLS, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.