NCES CCD 2024-25 5 schools KS

Best-Resourced Schools in Clay Center, KS

Compiled from official source data by .

5 public K-12 schools in Clay Center from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
5
Schools
1,069
Students
55/100
Avg Resource Index
12.7:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Compact, single-district system

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Clay Center has more public-school enrollment than 2% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Clay Center's 5 listed schools all sit inside one district, creating a compact governance structure with one budget, board, and reporting chain. That makes citywide comparisons cleaner than in places split across several districts, but it does not make the campuses interchangeable: elementary, middle, and high-school staffing needs differ. The ranked list is best read as variation inside one system rather than competition among separate local authorities.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

2 of Clay Center's 5 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales

Clay Center lists only 5 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 6 to 341 students, a 57-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.

City enrollment
Top 98%
School count
Top 99%
Resource Index average
95th percentile
Teacher staffing
82nd percentile

Lincoln Elem accounts for 31.9% of all Clay Center public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Clay Center-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clay Center school enrollment varies 57× across entities

Clay Center school enrollment ranges from 6 students (lowest) to 341 students (highest), a spread of 335 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme heterogeneity inside a single city, with small specialty programs listed alongside large comprehensive campuses. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clay Center operates one school district — a single-district system

Clay Center's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clay Center student-teacher ratio is 12.7:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Clay Center Community High 64
2. Elearn 379 Virtual School 59
3. Lincoln Elem 53
4. Clay Center Community Middle 51
5. Garfield Elem 48

What do families ask about schools in Clay Center?

Which Clay Center school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Clay Center Community High has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Clay Center schools in this federal-data comparison at 64/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Clay Center, KS? ▼

Clay Center has 5 public schools with a total enrollment of 1,069 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 12.7:1.

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Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.