The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Central Park Elementary School
Central Park Elementary School is a regular public school in Omaha, Nebraska, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as part of Omaha Public Schools. It is a neighborhood school in the north Omaha area, housed in the same building at 4904 North 42nd Street that many families in the surrounding blocks walk to. The school enrolls a moderate number of students for an elementary school, and the student body is majority Black, with a substantial Hispanic presence and smaller shares of Asian, white, and multiracial students. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price meals and how many receive special education or English learner services was not available. A parent may want to follow up with the school directly on those counts, as they shape the supports a child would experience.
State testing results for the 2024-25 school year show that in reading and math at every tested grade (third through fifth), as well as in fifth-grade science, zero percent of students scored at the proficient level. Among schools and districts across Douglas County, this places Central Park Elementary in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency. The district-level comparison set is relative to other Douglas County districts, so the gap is within the county, not against a statewide or national benchmark. In an earlier year, the school had a modest share of students reaching proficiency in reading, but the most recent data shows a further decline to the zero mark. For a family weighing academic trajectory, these numbers are the central fact: the school is struggling significantly with grade-level academic performance. The district’s “Moonshot” initiative, launched in 2024 and embedded in the 2026-30 strategic plan, aims to have all Omaha Public Schools students reading on grade level by 2030 through a structured literacy approach based on the Science of Reading. That means Central Park Elementary will be part of a district-wide shift in reading instruction, which families with primary-age children will see unfold over the next several years.
Omaha is Nebraska’s largest city, a major corporate and cultural center with Fortune 500 headquarters, a historic downtown core, and a mix of walkable districts and car-dependent suburban areas. The school is located north of downtown in a part of the city where housing values and rents are lower than the Omaha metro average, reflecting the more modest economic context of the immediate neighborhood. The Omaha metro area has seen modest population growth and ongoing development, including expansions of the convention center and downtown entertainment districts, but the economic profile of the North 42nd Street corridor is distinct from Omaha’s wealthier west-side suburbs.
Because Central Park Elementary serves only early grades, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and data on chronic absenteeism was not available. The school offers no special programs flagged in the available information—no magnet status, no explicit career or dual-credit pathways, and the school is not a charter. It is a regular elementary school operating within a large urban district that is currently undergoing a major pedagogical change in literacy.
For a parent, this is a school where the baseline academic outcomes are very low and where the district has publicly acknowledged the need for improvement through the Moonshot plan. The peer environment is diverse, but the limited academic results suggest many students are not yet meeting grade-level expectations. Families who are able to choose schools may want to investigate what additional academic supports, interventions, or enrichment are available at Central Park Elementary, and how the Moonshot initiative is being implemented in this building specifically. The housing affordability in the area may be a draw for some, but the trade-off is that the school’s current performance profile is among the weakest in Douglas County.
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