Bell Elementary, Papillion NE - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Bell Elementary

Bell Elementary serves students in prekindergarten through sixth grade in the Papillion La Vista Community Schools district. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school. The school sits in Papillion, a southwest suburb of Omaha that has grown steadily from its origins as an 1870s railroad town into one of the faster-growing communities in Nebraska. The city mixes residential neighborhoods with commercial centers like Shadow Lake Towne Center, and major technology employers such as Google and Meta operate data centers in the area. The school district itself has been opening new schools to keep pace with enrollment, a context that matters for families considering this area because it signals ongoing demand for seats and potential boundary adjustments over time.

The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students forming the next largest group, followed by small shares of Asian, two-or-more-races, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school on the lower end of economic need compared to many others in the area. Data on the share of students with individualized education programs or English-learner status was not available, so a parent wanting a complete picture of special education and language support resources may wish to ask the school directly.

On state assessments from the 2024-25 school year, results varied across grade levels and subjects. In math, third graders showed a proficiency rate above the midpoint, fifth graders landed at a solid level, and sixth graders were in a similar range. Fourth graders, however, had a very low reported proficiency rate in math, which is a sharp departure from the other grades tested. In English language arts, performance ranged from about three in five students proficient in fifth grade to roughly three-quarters proficient in sixth grade. Science results for fifth grade, the only grade tested in that subject, showed a strong proficiency rate. The school’s overall proficiency index, a combined measure across tested subjects and grades, placed Bell in the bottom quarter relative to other districts in Sarpy County. This is a soft spot worth investigating further. Because the school does not serve high school grades, no graduation rate data applies, and the comparison set available for this metric uses the district level, where the school’s own data was not applicable.

The housing market in the surrounding area reflects the affluent suburban character of Papillion. Home values and rents are above the state median. For a family moving into the district, this means the cost of entry is substantial, and the trade-off for those higher housing costs is access to a school with strong science outcomes at fifth grade and generally solid if uneven elementary achievement across other subjects. The district’s recent addition of new schools suggests that the system is investing in physical capacity to match its growth, which can also translate into newer facilities and potentially smaller class sizes in the newest buildings.

Bell Elementary sits in a suburban setting where students typically arrive by car or bus rather than on foot from compact neighborhoods. The school’s academic profile shows real strengths in upper-grade science and sixth-grade reading, but the low math result in fourth grade and the bottom-quartile overall index are pieces a parent would want to discuss with the principal to understand what instructional supports are in place and whether that fourth-grade math figure is an anomaly or a pattern. The lack of data on discipline, attendance, and course access means those factors, which matter to many families, cannot be addressed from this record alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 65% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 70 pts above state median · ▲ 70 pts above county median

Grade 40%

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

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 575%

School 75% · District 63% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 75 pts above state median · ▲ 75 pts above county median

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 65% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 69 pts above state median · ▲ 69 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 65% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 70 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 466%

School 66% · District 65% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 65% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 61 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 677%

School 77% · District 72% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 70 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Science

Grade 584%

School 84% · District 87% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 84 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above 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

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income79%36 pp gap