Cedar Hollow School, Grand Island NE

Original Research by School Decision on Cedar Hollow School

Cedar Hollow School is a regular public school in Grand Island serving prekindergarten through eighth grade. It sits within the Northwest Public Schools district, which appears to have undergone no major recent changes that were publicly reported. For families considering the school, the most direct question is what the academic picture looks like, and on that front the available state assessment data presents an uneven story that a parent will want to examine closely.

In the most recent state testing results, proficiency rates across subjects and grade levels varied widely. In reading and language arts, results ranged from a stronger showing in fourth grade, where a solid majority of students met the bar, to a notably weaker result in seventh grade, where the reported proficiency rate was zero. Third, fifth, sixth, and eighth grades landed in between, with roughly half to just over two-thirds of students rated proficient. In math, the picture was starker. Third grade posted a proficiency rate well above the midpoint, but every grade from fourth through eighth recorded a rate of zero. In science, the school performed stronger in both tested grades, fifth and eighth, where a clear majority of students were proficient. When looking at the school across all subjects and grades combined and comparing it to other districts within Hall County, Cedar Hollow landed in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency. That is a meaningful signal, though the small number of districts in the county cautions against overinterpretation. The school serves a student body that is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and a very small number of American Indian or multiracial students. About one in five students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that suggests a relatively lower level of economic need compared to many Nebraska schools.

The school is located on the south edge of Grand Island, a mid-sized regional city that serves as a retail and manufacturing hub for central Nebraska. Grand Island is home to major employers such as Hornady, CHI Health St. Francis, and Union Pacific, and the city draws people from a wide surrounding area for the Nebraska State Fair and Husker Harvest Days. The city is largely auto-dependent, with a demand-responsive transit system that requires advance reservations. Housing values in the area are near the state median, and rents have risen at a faster clip recently. For families living in the southern portion of Grand Island or the rural areas around it, Cedar Hollow is a neighborhood school that covers the full K-8 span, so a child could attend from kindergarten through middle school before moving to a high school in the Northwest system.

Cedar Hollow does not report figures for students with disabilities or English learners, so it is not possible to assess the support structures or representation for those groups from this data. The school is not a charter or magnet, and its Title I status was not provided. It is classified as a regular public school, meaning it follows the standard district curriculum and is not a specialized or alternative setting.

For a parent trying to make a decision, the central question is how to interpret the academic numbers. The pattern of zero-proficiency math results in grades four through eight is unusual. It could reflect a school-wide issue with instruction, curriculum alignment, or test readiness, or it could stem from reporting anomalies or a small number of tested students in each grade. Either way, a parent should ask the school directly for an explanation and for trend data from prior years to see if this is a one-year aberration or a persistent pattern. The reading and science results are more mixed, with some grades performing solidly and others well below par. The school's strong science scores in fifth and eighth grade are a genuine bright spot. By contrast, the seventh grade ELA result of zero, like the math pattern, invites a conversation with the school about what is happening at that grade level. This is a school where family fit will depend heavily on whether the academic program matches a child's needs and on how transparent the school is about its recent test performance. For families who value a K-8 continuity in a single building, Cedar Hollow offers that structure in a city that blends industrial employment with a traditional Great Plains community feel. The record of student outcomes, however, leaves important questions unanswered, and those questions are best put to the school directly before drawing conclusions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 82% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▲ 64 pts above state median · ▲ 64 pts above county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 90% · ▼ 90 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 88% · ▼ 88 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 84% · ▼ 84 pts below district

even with state median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 84% · ▼ 84 pts below district

even with state median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 87% · ▼ 87 pts below district

even with state median

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 77% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▲ 54 pts above state median · ▲ 54 pts above county median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 85% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 71 pts above county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 75% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▲ 50 pts above state median · ▲ 50 pts above county median

Grade 658%

School 58% · District 60% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 51 pts above state median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 65% · ▼ 65 pts below district

even with state median

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 70% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 69 pts above state median

Science

Grade 578%

School 78% · District 93% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 78 pts above state median · ▲ 78 pts above county median

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 87% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 72 pts above state median

This schoolNORTHWEST 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 7Lower-income62%Higher-income82%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income54%Higher-income86%32 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income100%Higher-income91%9 pp gap