The top reported proficiency rate is 89% in Science. The lowest is 28% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Hitchcock Elementary School
Hitchcock Elementary School is a regular public school in Omaha, Nebraska, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the Millard Public Schools district, in a part of the city that blends residential neighborhoods with easy access to Omaha’s broader economy and amenities. Omaha itself is the state’s largest city, home to Fortune 500 headquarters like Berkshire Hathaway and Union Pacific, and offers a walkable downtown core, the Old Market historic district, and major cultural attractions such as the Henry Doorly Zoo. For a family looking at Hitchcock, the school’s location within Millard means a suburban-style setting inside a large urban district.
The school’s enrollment is modest for its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and a handful of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that indicates a moderate level of economic diversity. The school does not report counts for students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent wanting to understand those support structures would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, the picture is unusual and worth close attention. Hitchcock’s fourth graders posted strong proficiency rates in math, and fifth graders showed very strong results in English language arts and in science. However, third graders in both math and ELA reported a zero percent proficiency rate, as did fourth graders in ELA and fifth graders in math. Those zeros appear in the state data as reported, not missing. Given that the school has sizable classes at those grade levels, a zero is not simply a matter of too few students to report. The multi-year trend data for the school as a whole suggests an overall proficiency rate above nine in ten in ELA and close to that in math across all grades, which implies that the grade-level zeros may stem from a data issue, a testing anomaly, or an extremely small group of test-takers within a given grade. A parent looking at these results should raise the question with the school to understand what happened in those grade-subject combinations before drawing conclusions.
When placed alongside other districts in Douglas County, Hitchcock’s combined proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile. That comparison is worth interpreting with care, because it blends the strong results from some grades with the zero entries from others. The school’s actual performance on the tests that did yield results is high, but the county-level metric treats all reported numbers equally, so the zeros pull the average down sharply.
The neighborhood served by Hitchcock shows housing costs that are modest relative to national averages. Home values in the area are roughly in line with the statewide median, and rents are below what many larger metro areas command. The local economy in Omaha is stable, anchored by major employers, and the unemployment rate has been running near four percent. For a family moving to the area, Hitchcock sits in a part of the metro that offers a relatively affordable entry point into Millard Public Schools.
The district itself has not recently undergone notable changes that would show up in public reporting, so families can assume continuity in programming and leadership absent further inquiry.
Hitchcock Elementary is a small school with strong performance where test data is available, but with gaps that need explanation. It serves a predominantly white, moderately economically diverse population in a stable urban-suburban setting. A parent considering the school should plan to ask about the grade-level testing results directly with the school administration.
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