Waterloo, KS schools
Waterloo’s public schools score well above Kansas’s averages: 42% of students are proficient in reading against 35.5% statewide, and 95% of high schoolers graduate on time against 88%. Kids attend Mission Valley Elementary or NLC Elementary School through grade 8, then NLC Elementary School or Mission Valley Junior and Senior High School and Mission Valley Junior and Senior High School or Northern Heights.
Grades, test scores, graduation, spending and every school, from U.S. Department of Education data.
Waterloo’s School Grade: B
The public schools Waterloo’s kids attend outperform 56% of Kansas’s districts on state tests.
How the School Grade works
- Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Kansas’s state tests, each against the state average. 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.
- 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.
Where Waterloo kids go to school
Based on district boundaries from the U.S. Department of Education. Check with the district before you enroll.
Above the state in reading
95% graduate on time
The share of students who started ninth grade together and earned a regular diploma within four years.
Two districts serve Waterloo
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
Colleges near Waterloo
There’s no college in Waterloo, but 4 colleges are within 30 miles. The closest is Emporia State University in Emporia, 21 miles away.
Straight-line distance from the center of Waterloo. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus.
We don’t have any schools located in Waterloo yet.