NCES CCD 2024-25 15 schools NE

Best-Resourced Schools in Kearney, NE

Compiled from official source data by .

15 public K-12 schools in Kearney 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
15
Schools
6,129
Students
38.7/100
Avg Resource Index
15.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Kearney has more public-school enrollment than 64% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Kearney sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

12 of Kearney's 15 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.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 52-point gap between West Kearney High School and Kearney Education Center shows the range hidden by Kearney's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 36%
School count
Top 23%
Resource Index average
40th percentile
Teacher staffing
44th percentile

Kearney High School accounts for 27.1% of all Kearney public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Kearney-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. 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

Kearney school enrollment varies 26× across entities

Kearney school enrollment ranges from 65 students (lowest) to 1,663 students (highest), a spread of 1,598 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. 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

Kearney student-teacher ratio is 15.9:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Variation between sub-units within Kearney is typically wider than the Kearney-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. West Kearney High School 67
2. Buffalo Hills Elementary 47
3. Park Elementary School 45
4. Windy Hills Elementary School 44
5. Kenwood Elementary School 42
6. Bryant Elementary School 42
7. Emerson Elementary School 42
8. Meadowlark Elementary School 40
9. Glenwood Elementary School 40
10. Northeast Elementary School 39
11. Central Elementary School 38
12. Horizon Middle School 31
13. Kearney High School 24
14. Sunrise Middle School 24
15. Kearney Education Center 15

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Kearney

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 West Kearney High School 67.4/100
  2. 2 Central Elementary School 59.2/100
  3. 3 Bryant Elementary School 54.6/100
  4. 4 Northeast Elementary School 51.1/100
  5. 5 Emerson Elementary School 49.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Kearney?

Which Kearney school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

West Kearney High School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Kearney schools in this federal-data comparison at 67/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Kearney, NE? ▼

Kearney has 15 public schools with a total enrollment of 6,129 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.9:1.

Other Cities in Nebraska

Omaha
155 schools
Lincoln
66 schools
Bellevue
29 schools
Grand Island
23 schools
Papillion
17 schools
Fremont
12 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Nebraska →

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.