Schools · Clay Center

Clay Center, KS schools

Clay Center’s public schools score below Kansas’s averages: 34% of students are proficient in reading against 35.5% statewide, and 87% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88%. Kids attend Lincoln Elem through grade 3, then Clay Center Community Middle and Clay Center Community High.

Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.

TownTapestry School GradeNew

Clay Center’s School Grade: C+

The public schools Clay Center’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 56% of Kansas’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they sit near the middle.

B-Test scoresCGraduation
Kansas school districts we grade (283)Better than 44%
Lower resultsHigher results
Kansas towns with similar household incomes (834)Better than 38%
High confidence. Built on 669 tested students and a graduating class of 90; ordinary year-to-year swings are unlikely to change the grade.
How the School Grade works
  • Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Kansas’s state tests, each against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown below but don’t count toward the grade. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
  • The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids: every district that serves it, weighted by the number of students tested in each. Tests count 60% and graduation 40%.
  • Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are lined up against the rest of Kansas only. A+ top 5%A next 10%A- next 10%B B+ to B−, next 30%C C+ to C−, next 30%D D and D−, bottom 15%
  • Individual schools are graded the same way on their own test results, against every public school in Kansas with 25+ students. Private schools aren’t graded: they don’t take the state tests.
  • What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income closely, so a high grade partly reflects who lives in a town. That’s why we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
School path

Where Clay Center kids go to school

Grades PK–3
ALincoln Elem 341 students · Clay Center Clay Center Unified School District 379
Grades 9–12
B-Clay Center Community High 326 students · Clay Center Clay Center Unified School District 379

Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.

Test scores · 2020–21

Below the state in reading

Reading (grades PK–12, Clay Center Unified School District 379)34%
State average 35.5%
Math (grades PK–12, Clay Center Unified School District 379)28%
State average 27.9%
Graduation · class of 2020

87% graduate on time

Graduation rate
87%
KS: 88%
Graduating class
90
students

The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years. #79 of 125 KS towns →

Districts

The district serving Clay Center

Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.

Within reach

Colleges near Clay Center

There’s no college within 30 miles of Clay Center. The closest is Manhattan Area Technical College in Manhattan, KS, 30.2 miles away.

Straight-line distance from the center of Clay Center. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus.

Every school

All 4 schools in Clay Center

Showing 1–4 of 4 schools

School data from the U.S. Department of Education (NCES). Ratings are from neighbors on TownTapestry.

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01