The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Science. The lowest is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Wilber-clatonia High School
Wilber-Clatonia High School is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve in the small town of Wilber, Nebraska, the county seat of Saline County. The town is a compact, agriculturally based rural community with a strong Czech heritage, and its economy is tied to farming, grain elevators, and meat processing. The high school sits on a campus south of the downtown core, a pattern common to small Midwestern towns where the school complex is separated from the commercial center.
The school’s enrollment is small for a high school, with a student body spread across the four grade levels. The student population is predominantly white, with a Hispanic share that is lower than typical national averages for the region. More than a third of students come from households with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a figure that gives some sense of the economic circumstances in the community. Housing values in the area are well below the national median, and the town is growing very slowly, with a modest population increase over recent years. The district brief notes no significant recent changes or bond issues that would signal a major shift in programming or facilities.
The most recent state testing data available for the school comes from the school year ending in 2019, which is several years old. It is important to note these results are dated and may not reflect current academic performance. In that year, the school’s test results were mixed. In English language arts, the share of students meeting proficiency was below the midpoint among tested grades, and in math the proficiency rates were lower than in English. However, on the science assessment, a strong majority of students scored at the proficient level or above. The data does not cover high school grade-level tests, which typically differ from the middle-school assessments shown here, so direct comparisons to a four-year high school are limited. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades was in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Saline County.
Because the school serves only high school grades, information about chronic absenteeism and the four-year graduation rate was not available in the data provided, making it impossible to assess how well the school supports students through to completion or how consistent attendance is. Parents may want to seek current information on the graduation rate directly from the school.
The school offered some identifiable program data, but the specific course access, career and technical education pathways, and advanced coursework such as AP were not described in the available data. A parent looking for breadth in upper-level academic offerings would need to ask the school directly. Similarly, information on student support services, discipline rates, and staffing ratios was absent, leaving gaps in understanding the school environment and the resources available to students. The civil rights and outcomes data was also missing, so there is no picture of how the school serves different student subgroups.
Wilber-Clatonia High School is the kind of place that fits a family looking for a small, rural high school in a town with a distinct cultural identity and a slow pace of growth. The academic results from several years ago show weaker performance in core subjects relative to nearby districts, but the science results were strong. The absence of recent testing data and key outcome measures means a family will need to ask pointed questions about current achievement, graduation rates, and the breadth of the academic program before forming a full picture.
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