Holling Heights Elem School, Omaha NE

Original Research by School Decision on Holling Heights Elem School

Holling Heights Elementary School is a regular public school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in the Millard Public Schools system, located in the southwestern part of Omaha. It is one of many elementary schools in a large suburban district, and its building sits in a mid-priced residential area of the city. The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with a notable share of Hispanic students and a smaller share of Black students, plus smaller groups of Asian and multiracial students. About three in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful indicator of economic need, though the school’s Title I status was not reported in the available data.

State assessment results reveal a mixed picture. In math, the school’s proficiency rates were very low in the third and fourth grades, and somewhat higher but still modest in fifth grade. Reading proficiency was stronger in fourth grade than in third and fifth, with the fifth-grade reading result matching the math result for that grade. Science, which is tested only in fifth grade, posted the highest proficiency of any subject and grade. Taken together, the school’s overall proficiency index sat in the bottom quarter when compared with other elementary schools in Douglas County that reported results. This is a soft spot a parent may want to investigate further with the school, especially to understand what supports are in place for students who are not yet proficient.

The data does not include information on special education or English learner populations, chronic absenteeism, or discipline rates, so those dimensions of the school environment are not visible here. Because the school serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school offers a standard elementary program, and the available records do not indicate any specialized magnet or charter status, nor any program offerings beyond the core curriculum.

The community context is Omaha, a large city with a diverse economy anchored by several Fortune 500 headquarters and a mix of historic and modern neighborhoods. The school’s zip code area, roughly in the Millard corridor, has home values that are moderate relative to the national market, with rents rising somewhat faster than homes over the past year. This suggests a stable but not rapidly appreciating housing market, typical of many established Omaha suburbs. The surrounding neighborhood is car-dependent, as is much of Omaha outside the downtown core, and the school draws from a residential area of single-family homes.

The district itself, Millard Public Schools, has a reputation as a large suburban system, but no recent changes or strategic priorities were found in the available public records, so the narrative around district direction is absent rather than contradictory. For a family considering this school, the key takeaway is that Holling Heights serves a diverse, economically mixed community in a stable part of Omaha, but its academic proficiency lags behind many other elementary schools in the county, particularly in math and in some grades of reading. The science results suggest that at least by fifth grade some students are performing well, but the early-grade gaps are wide. A parent would want to tour the school, ask about intervention programs and staffing levels, and understand how the school addresses the instructional needs of students who are not meeting benchmarks.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 73% · ▼ 73 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 74% · ▼ 74 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 74% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 72% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▲ 53 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 461%

School 61% · District 75% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 73% · ▼ 36 pts below district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Science

Grade 574%

School 74% · District 92% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▲ 74 pts above state median · ▲ 74 pts above county median

This schoolMILLARD 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income94%36 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income74%18 pp gap