Schools · Colby

Colby, KS schools

Colby’s public schools score well below Kansas’s averages: 28% of students are proficient in reading against 35.5% statewide, and 87% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88%. Kids attend Colby Elem through grade 4, then Colby Middle School and Colby Senior High.

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

CSchool Grade #73Best schools in KS (of 123)#79Highest graduation rate in KS (of 125)

TownTapestry School GradeNew

Colby’s School Grade: C

The public schools Colby’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, trail 67% of Kansas’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.

C+Test scoresCGraduation

Kansas school districts we grade (283)Better than 33%

Lower resultsHigher results

Kansas towns with similar household incomes (846)Better than 28%

High confidence. Built on 500 tested students and a graduating class of 66; 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.