The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Red Cloud Elementary School
Red Cloud Elementary School serves the community of Red Cloud, a small rural county seat in south-central Nebraska. The school is a public regular school that enrolls students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. It is part of Red Cloud Community Schools, the single school district covering the town.
The town itself is known as the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather, and heritage tourism centered on her life and work is a defining economic and cultural force alongside agriculture. Visitors do not experience Red Cloud as a growing place; the population has been in a long-term decline, and the town’s development strategy focuses on diversifying around tourism and investing in children’s services. The National Willa Cather Center, a major infrastructure project, and the restored Red Cloud Opera House anchor a compact, walkable downtown with historic brick streets. The Republican River and a highly regarded public golf course provide recreation. Housing values in the area are well below national and state benchmarks and have seen a modest recent decline. The district itself did not have recent parent-relevant changes on record from available sources, so a family moving in should expect the district to be operating under its existing programs and policies.
The elementary school’s student body is predominantly white, with a noticeable Hispanic minority and a small share of students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on the share of students with an Individualized Education Program or who are English learners was not available. The school’s grade band means that there is no graduation rate reported, as it does not serve high school grades.
Academic performance data from state testing presents a picture that requires careful interpretation. For the most recent year on record, the proficiency rate for all tested grades in both math and English language arts was reported at a very low level, and the science score for fifth grade was similarly low. There were too few districts in Webster County to conduct a meaningful comparison against neighboring schools. The school’s multi-year trend data, however, tells a more complicated story. For English language arts, the reporting shows a gap between an initial point and a final point that are quite far apart, which a parent may want to investigate further with the school to understand the context behind that range. For math and science, the trend data shows a consistent floor across the recorded years. This is an unusual pattern for a school that serves general education students in these tested grades, and families should ask the school directly what that data reflects about instruction, assessment participation, and student needs.
The school is a neighborhood elementary school in a town where all civic institutions are in close proximity. For a family moving to or residing in Red Cloud, this is the elementary school their child will attend unless they choose an option outside the district. The district appears to be a straightforward, single-campus operation in a community that is economically modest, culturally rich, and demographically stable. The academic data raises clear questions, and a parent who values a high-proficiency peer environment across every grade will want to understand those scores before enrolling. A family that is already invested in this small, historic community will find a school that serves the town’s youngest residents in a setting where class sizes are small and the district has no other elementary options to navigate. The lack of recent district news and the thin program information available mean that the best source of current detail will be the school itself.
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