The reported proficiency rate for Math is 0%.
Original Research by School Decision on Harrison Grade School
Harrison Grade School serves a remote High Plains community as the only elementary and middle school in Sioux County Public Schools, covering preschool through eighth grade in a single building in the village of Harrison. The school sits in the Nebraska Panhandle near the Wyoming border, in a county with no other incorporated towns and a sparse ranching population that has been shrinking for decades. The school itself is small, and the classroom experience is shaped by that scale.
The village of Harrison bills itself as "Nebraska's Top Town" for its high elevation, but its population has declined steadily since the mid-twentieth century as farm and ranch consolidation reduced the number of local families. The school building, the county courthouse, and a church were built together in what was the original townsite, and the school remains woven into the village center rather than set on an outlying campus. There is no separate middle or high school building here; secondary students attend the district's high school elsewhere, but for PK-8, this is the only option in town. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument lies nearby and is a regional draw, but Harrison itself has minimal commercial activity and no public transit, and a parent should expect a self-sufficient rural lifestyle with long drives for many services.
State testing data for the most recent year was largely suppressed due to the very small number of students tested, a common outcome in a school this size where small counts are withheld to protect student privacy. The school did report results for one grade level in math and for the all-grade combination in reading, math, and science, but with only a single grade's math proficiency reported at zero percent and the overall rates varying widely across subjects, the picture is too thin to draw reliable conclusions about academic standing. Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to consider. The small cohort means that year-to-year swings can be dramatic and may reflect the performance of just a handful of students rather than a stable trend. A parent evaluating the school academically would want to speak directly with the principal or teachers about classroom instruction and student progress, as the published numbers cannot tell a clear story.
The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic share and a handful of students from other racial backgrounds. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is modest, which in a rural setting where many families work in agriculture or local government may not capture all economic need. Enrollment counts show a very small school by any measure, with some elementary grades having only a single student or none at all. That kind of enrollment can mean multi-grade classrooms and highly individualized attention, but it also means limited peer variety and fewer group activities than a larger school would offer. Classmates one year may be an entirely different group the next, particularly in the upper elementary and middle school grades.
Sioux County Public Schools, the parent district, is very small, and no recent changes or initiatives of note were found in publicly available sources. The school is not a charter and has no magnet designation. Title I status was not provided. No program offerings were listed in the available data, so whether the school offers specialized electives, music, or extracurriculars beyond the core is not clear from this information; a parent would need to inquire at the school about what is available. The environment is one of deep rural isolation, with limited housing inventory and a village population that has been declining for decades. For a family that values tight-knit community and a school where every student is known by name, Harrison Grade School fits that mold. For a family seeking broad academic programming, robust extracurricular choices, or a growing housing market, it would not.
See more original research from School Decision →