Bertha Barber Elementary Sch, Bellevue NE

Original Research by School Decision on Bertha Barber Elementary Sch

Bertha Barber Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Bellevue, Nebraska, part of the Bellevue Public Schools district. This is a regular public school with no charter or magnet status, and it falls under the district which covers the suburban city of Bellevue in Sarpy County, within the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area. The school is a small elementary building, with an enrollment that makes it a compact community for its grade band.

The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic and Black students making up the next largest groups, and a small share of students who identify as two or more races. More than half of the students at Bertha Barber qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share that positions the school as serving a lower-income population relative to many in the area. Data on the share of students with Individualized Education Programs or who are English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about its special education and language-support offerings.

On state assessments, the picture is mixed. For the most recent testing year, across third through sixth grade, the school recorded a zero percent proficiency rate in math and a zero percent proficiency rate in English language arts. This is a very low result, and the school’s overall proficiency index placed it in the bottom quartile among Sarpy County districts. A parent should note that the school’s multi-year trend data shows a wider range of past results, with proficiency rates in the mid-fifties for both math and ELA in earlier grade-level rows, so these recent zero-percent figures represent a sharp drop that warrants a direct conversation with the school about what changed and what supports are in place now. Science testing in fifth grade also showed a zero percent proficiency rate. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report.

Bellevue itself is a suburban city whose economy has long been tied to Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command headquarters, and more recently to civilian expansion along the Kennedy Freeway corridor. The city has a low-density, car-oriented layout with minimal transit. Housing values in the school’s zip code are below the state benchmark and notably below the national benchmark, which means families moving to the area for this school may find the housing market more attainable than many parts of the country, though still a meaningful cost for the area. The city has seen modest population decline in recent estimates, and the 2019 Missouri River floods destroyed a number of homes, a loss that still shapes the local housing picture.

The district itself did not have any publicly reported recent changes such as bond measures, levy adjustments, or curriculum overhauls that could be confirmed, so there are no known structural shifts at the district level that affect Bertha Barber. The school’s offerings beyond academics were not detailed in the available data, so a parent should check directly for any enrichment programs, before- or after-care, or other supports.

Given the very low state test results, this is a school where a family would want to be in close contact with the principal and teachers to understand the academic experience day to day. The small enrollment may allow for individual attention, but the proficiency data is a clear area of concern that requires investigation.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 61% · ▼ 60 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 57% · ▼ 57 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 59% · ▼ 59 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 59% · ▼ 59 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 59% · ▼ 59 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 45 pts below county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 54% · ▼ 54 pts below district

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 54 pts below county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 57% · ▼ 57 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 53 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 63% · ▼ 63 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 50 pts below county median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 85% · ▼ 85 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 74 pts below county median

This schoolBELLEVUE PUBLIC 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.