The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cody-kilgore Elementary School
Cody-Kilgore Elementary School serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in the tiny village of Kilgore, Nebraska, a Sandhills community whose population has declined steadily over recent decades. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and sits within the Cody-Kilgore Public Schools district.
The student body is small, and the demographic profile is predominantly white, with a small number of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a handful of students identifying as two or more races or Hispanic. More than half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the limited local economic base of a village where employment is minimal and the nearest regional hub, Valentine, is roughly a twenty-mile drive east.
State assessment results present an uneven picture that a parent will want to understand in context. In third-grade English language arts, the large majority of students met the proficiency standard, which is a strong result. However, for fourth and fifth grade ELA, as well as for math at every tested grade level and fifth-grade science, no students scored as proficient in the most recent testing year. The school’s overall trend data shows that in a previous composite of ELA results across grades, a substantial majority of students were proficient; the most recent year’s results represent a sharp departure from that earlier performance. Because the school is very small, a shift of just a few students can swing the percentage dramatically, but the current numbers are a soft spot a parent should discuss with the school to understand what instructional supports are in place.
Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the grade band means that factors like AP or dual-credit course access do not apply. The data available does not include information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, or special education and English learner counts, so a parent would need to ask the district directly about those areas.
The school is part of a tiny district of approximately three schools serving the Cody and Kilgore area. The district brief turned up no publicly reported major recent changes, and the community itself shows a long arc of contraction: the village population has dropped from nearly one hundred residents a few decades ago to just over sixty today. There is no evidence of new housing or commercial development. The historical brick schoolhouse that once served as a K-12 building appears to have been replaced or consolidated; the current elementary school is part of a district that spans a sparsely populated rural expanse.
For a family, this is a school with a very small, tight-knit setting where the peer group is small and largely homogenous. The academic results show a real disparity between a single strong third-grade reading outcome and the absence of proficiency in other tested grades and subjects in the most recent year. The community offers little in the way of local employment, shopping, or services; families likely commute to Valentine or rely on the school itself as a community anchor. This is a place that fits a family seeking a rural, low-key environment and willing to engage closely with the school around its academic performance. The school’s small size means that individual attention is possible, but the most recent test results suggest that academic outcomes for most students in math, upper-grade reading, and science are not where many families would hope to see them.
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