No metro map yet; start with the biggest places.
Nebraska's public school system includes 966 ranked schools spread across a geographically expansive state. The breakdown covers 530 elementary schools, 133 middle schools, and 263 high schools — a structure shaped by consolidation across Nebraska's many rural communities, where a single building often houses multiple grade bands. Parents moving to or within the state will encounter that variety quickly: some districts operate a handful of large campuses; others run one small school serving K-12.
The statewide average score is 6.3 out of 10 — moderate, but the distribution above that midpoint is the more useful figure. Three hundred forty-nine schools, or 36% of all ranked schools, score 7 or higher. More than one in three Nebraska public schools performs well above the statewide mean, giving parents real options across most regions. The challenge is that performance clusters unevenly, and district averages can obscure meaningful differences between individual buildings.
Nebraska's five highest-rated schools in 2026 are all rural elementary programs. Elementary School at Dwight leads the state at 9.9 out of 10. Bruning-Davenport Elem in Davenport (9.7), Loup County Elementary in Taylor (9.6), Shickley Elementary in Shickley (9.6), and Palisade Attendance Center in Palisade (9.5) round out the top five. All five are small-town schools — none in a major metro, none attached to a large district. Parents who look past the largest cities will find some of the state's strongest performers in towns that don't appear on most maps.
District-level averages can smooth over real building-to-building variation, so school-level scores are the right unit of comparison. A single district can house several schools with very different ratings, and relying on a district's reputation rather than each building's individual score leads to imprecise conclusions. Reviewing schools independently — especially when a district spans urban, suburban, or rural campuses — gives parents a more accurate read before committing to a neighborhood.
Parents researching Nebraska should focus on that 7-and-above tier — 349 schools statewide — and cross-reference scores with enrollment size and test score trends where available. The ceiling here is high: a 9.9 rating and multiple schools at 9.6 show what Nebraska's strongest programs deliver. Families open to smaller districts, particularly at the elementary level, have the widest access to those top-tier options. With 263 ranked high schools spread across the state, most families can find a competitive secondary school without relocating far.
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Enrollment-weighted average across 184 schools. Source: NCES Common Core of Data (CCD).
Averages across 332 ZIP codes (ACS 2022)
MySchoolScout has rankings and data for 1,194 public schools across 272 districts in Nebraska.
The average MySchoolScout composite score for ranked schools in Nebraska is 6.3 out of 10.
On average, 63.8% of students across ranked schools in Nebraska are proficient in math, based on the most recent state assessment data.
On average, 63.5% of students across ranked schools in Nebraska are proficient in reading and ELA, based on the most recent state assessment data.
The average student-teacher ratio across ranked schools in Nebraska is 13.2:1.
The top-ranked school in Nebraska on MySchoolScout is Atkinson Elementary School in Atkinson, with a composite score of 9.7/10.
MySchoolScout rates schools using publicly available data from the NCES Common Core of Data and the Nebraska Department of Education. Each school receives a 1-10 composite score built from Student Growth, Poverty-Adjusted Academic Achievement, and School Environment — plus College Readiness for high schools. Weights vary by school level, and equity data is shown for context but not scored.
Data insights
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Data from NCES Common Core of Data, Nebraska Dept. of Education, and U.S. Census ACS for the 2023–24 school year. Rankings computed by MySchoolScout. See all data sources.