Best Public Schools in Mankato, KS

Mankato has two listed public schools: Rock Hills Elementary School, serving prekindergarten through grade 5, and Rock Hills Junior/Senior High School, serving grades 6–12. In 2025–26, the elementary’s all-grades proficiency was 55% in English language arts (ELA), 49% in math, and 50% in science; the high school reported 28%, 33%, and 35%, respectively. These all-grades results cover different grade spans, so they are not same-grade comparisons. The most important finding is that the elementary was above the state in all three subjects, while the high school was below it in all three.

Rock Hills Elementary stands out in the latest all-grades results: it exceeded the state by 9 percentage points in ELA, 8 in math, and 12 in science. Rock Hills Junior/Senior High was furthest below the state in ELA, by 18 points, followed by math, by 8 points; its science result was 3 points below. The elementary’s results were higher than the high school’s by 26 points in ELA, 16 in math, and 15 in science. Grade-level results add important detail: elementary grade 3 was above the state by 15 points in ELA and 17 in math, while high-school grade 7 was 23 points below in ELA and 17 below in math.

Recent trends also favor the elementary, while showing a notable science improvement at the high school. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, the elementary gained 6 points in ELA, 13 in math, and 13 in science; the high school fell 6 points in ELA and 10 in math, but gained 3 in science. SchoolDigger rates the elementary at the 61st percentile and 3 stars, up from the 38th percentile two years earlier; the high school is at the 30th percentile and 2 stars, down from 36 two years earlier after reaching 75 in between. The elementary has a 11.9 student-teacher ratio and a 61% free/reduced-lunch rate; the high school’s figures are 12.8 and 55%.