Parkview Heights Elem School, La Vista NE

Original Research by School Decision on Parkview Heights Elem School

Parkview Heights Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in the Papillion La Vista Community Schools district, one of the larger districts in Nebraska. The school sits in La Vista, a suburban city in Sarpy County that borders Omaha and has grown from a small subdivision into a community of residential neighborhoods, corporate campuses, and retail districts along the Interstate 80 corridor. The district has recently opened two new schools to handle enrollment growth, a sign that the area continues to attract families.

The student body at Parkview Heights is moderately sized for an elementary school spanning these grades. The racial and ethnic makeup is mixed, with a majority of students identified as white and substantial shares of Hispanic students, along with smaller numbers of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Information on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is not available in the data, nor are counts for students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent may want to ask the school about these support programs directly.

The academic picture from state testing is uneven and raises questions. In the most recent assessment year, proficiency rates in math and English language arts varied sharply by grade level. For fifth graders, about half scored proficient in math and a similar share in English language arts. Sixth graders showed a modest proficiency rate in English language arts, but mathematics proficiency was reported at zero for third, fourth, and sixth grades. Science testing, which occurs only in fifth grade, also showed a zero proficiency result. An overall proficiency index, combining results across tested grades and subjects, places the school in the bottom quartile relative to other elementary schools in Sarpy County. A single year of data can be volatile, particularly when only a few grade levels are tested, but the pattern merits a closer conversation with school staff about curriculum and student support. Because the school ends at sixth grade, there is no graduation rate to consider.

La Vista itself is a car-dependent community with a dispersed layout; schools are situated on separate campuses rather than clustered in a downtown area. The city offers parks, a sports complex, a community center, and a public library, and transit service reaches the area on weekdays. Major employers include PayPal, Yahoo, Streck Laboratories, and others, many located in commercial districts near the interstate. Housing costs in the zip code are above the statewide typical home value, and rents are also higher, consistent with the suburban Omaha market.

For a family considering this school, the key factors are its setting in a growing district that has invested in new facilities, a student body with some diversity, and test results that appear low compared to other schools in the county—a point worth exploring directly with the school. The absence of data on income and special programs means those details would need to come from the school itself. Parkview Heights is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and serves a broad neighborhood attendance area within the district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

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

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 40%

School 0% · District 62% · ▼ 62 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 63% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

Grade 60%

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

even with state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 30%

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

even with state median · ▼ 45 pts below county median

Grade 40%

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

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 54 pts below county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 65% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 53 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 72% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 87% · ▼ 86 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 74 pts below county median

This schoolPAPILLION LA VISTA COMMUNITY 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-income42%Higher-income68%26 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income61%15 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income68%25 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income42%Higher-income68%26 pp gap