Summary:
ZIP code 54949 is served by a single public elementary school: Manawa Elementary, part of the Manawa School District. It enrolls 221 students in grades PK–5. Because it is the only elementary school in the area, there are no nearby peer schools to compare it with—the useful benchmarks are the district and the state.
Academically, results have shifted noticeably. In 2024–2025, proficiency was close to state average: the simple average across all listed Forward Exam tests was about 54.0% for both the school and the state, and 3rd grade ELA (59.09% vs. 52.14%), 3rd grade math (59.09% vs. 55.00%), 4th grade math (56.76% vs. 53.96%), and 4th grade science (56.76% vs. 50.83%) were all above state. In 2025–2026, every reported school score fell below the state, with the all-test average dropping to about 41.9% versus 54.7% statewide. Math was weakest: roughly 36.2% across grades 3–5 versus 53.1% for the state. The largest gaps were 4th grade math (-22.44 points), 3rd grade ELA (-21.78 points), and 3rd grade math (-20.37 points). Grade 5 ELA was the closest bright spot at 53.13%, just 0.50 points below state. The school’s rank fell from 563 of 1,044 (46th percentile, 2 stars) in 2024–2025 to 783 of 1,039 (25th percentile, 1 star) in 2025–2026. The district is rated 1 star, ranked 359 of 432 districts.
One clear strength: chronic absenteeism was 3.6% in 2024–2025, far below the district’s 10.3% and the state’s 17.3%. About 52.04% of students were eligible for free/reduced lunch, per-student spending was $16,926, and the student-teacher ratio was 12.7. With 221 students across PK–5, grade-level groups are small and a few students can swing results, so a single year’s change should be read with caution.
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