Elko

The Elko district covers 32 schools — 15 elementary, 8 middle, 8 high, and 1 alternative — enrolling about 9,529 students across a large, rural stretch of northeastern Nevada, and the district ranks 6 of 12 in the state at the 50th percentile with 3 stars. Enrollment is highly uneven: Elko High School (1,407 students) and Spring Creek High School (880) dwarf the median school of roughly 174 students, while several rural campuses enroll fewer than 40. Many small schools have suppressed test scores, which should be treated as unknown rather than zero, and some report $0 spending or blank student-teacher ratios that look like reporting gaps.

Several schools stand out academically. Grammar School 2 has the highest reported Math All Grades score in the group at 50.9% and Reading All Grades at 47.1%, despite 100% of its students being economically disadvantaged. Spring Creek Elementary School posts reading and science results above state levels with chronic absenteeism of 19.4%, and Southside Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School also outperform on math. At the high school level, West Wendover High School has a 93.2% graduation rate and 38.5% EOC Science, while Wells High School leads on ACT English at 53.8%.

Challenges cluster in specific places. The Owyhee schools face the steepest odds: Owyhee High School has a 52.0% graduation rate and 59.7% chronic absenteeism, and Owyhee Elementary School has the lowest reported Reading All Grades score at 11.2%. Middle grades are a weak spot, with West Wendover Middle School posting the lowest reported Math All Grades score at 16.4% and Spring Creek Middle School at 19%. Chronic absenteeism is system-wide, with the district at 29.0% versus the state’s 25.5%.