Riley County

Riley County Grade School (514 students, PK–8) and Riley County High School (232 students, grades 9–12) are the two listed schools in Riley County, together serving students from preschool through high school. In 2025–26, both schools were above state proficiency rates in ELA, math, and science. The clearest overall distinction is that the grade school had higher all-grades proficiency in every subject, while the high school’s science result was closest to the state rate.

Riley County Grade School stands out for the stronger all-grades scores: 69% in ELA, 69% in math, and 64% in science, compared with 63%, 59%, and 47% at the high school. The school-to-school gaps were 6 points in ELA, 9 in math, and 17 in science. Both schools were above state rates, but the grade school’s advantages were larger: 23 points in ELA, 28 in math, and 26 in science, versus 17, 18, and 9 points at the high school. Grade-level results at the grade school also varied: its fifth-grade ELA advantage was 7 points, the smallest listed, while sixth-grade math was 42 points above the state.

Recent score changes were mixed rather than uniformly upward. At the grade school, ELA fell 1 point and math rose 1, while science fell 3; its state-relative advantages narrowed slightly in ELA and math and were nearly unchanged in science. At the high school, ELA rose 4 points and its advantage over the state widened by 2, while math fell 1 and its advantage narrowed by 4. SchoolDigger rankings improved substantially over the three reported years: the grade school moved from the 85th to the 93rd percentile, and the high school from the 76th to the 94th, with both nearly flat in the latest year. The high school also had a lower student-teacher ratio (10.4 versus 12.9) and lower chronic absenteeism (10% versus 16%); both schools were below the state absenteeism rate of 18%. Its 2024–25 free/reduced-lunch rate was 21%, compared with 23% at the grade school—contextual differences, not explanations for results.