Nebraska Department of Education and LPS release accountability data for 2024-2025 school year
November 25, 2025
The Nebraska Department of Education and Lincoln Public Schools released school year accountability data for the 2024-2025 school year on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
NDE uses the AQuESTT framework - Accountability for a Quality Education System, Today and Tomorrow - to classify schools based on a snapshot of school assessments and data. AQuESTT information from the state is publicly released each fall based on data from the previous school year.
LPS Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Sarah Salem says there are many opportunities and techniques used by Lincoln Public Schools administrators and teachers throughout the school year to check student progress, make adjustments and help students get on track for success. Tools such as Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth, classroom assessments, screeners and other district-developed assessments provide detailed, timely information that helps teachers and school leaders make informed decisions.
“Interpreting educational data requires looking beyond a single measure and prioritizing the information that is closest to the student,” said Salem. “The data that teachers and school leaders find most useful are those that reflect students’ day-to-day learning and experiences and include measures not listed in AQuESTT.”
Salem added that as a district, LPS does not rely heavily on AQuESTT ratings to evaluate teaching and learning.
“Instead, we prioritize academic measures that give us a closer look at how students are progressing in real time,” commented Salem. “These measures allow us to monitor growth throughout the year, and they offer a clearer picture of individual students’ needs, strengths and areas for support.”
LPS Superintendent John Skretta said that by using multiple sources of data throughout the year, schools are able to identify needs more accurately and respond more quickly.
“We are proud of the work LPS schools, administrators and staff are doing to take a more comprehensive, student-centered approach in understanding progress and celebrating growth in ways that honor the whole student,” commented Skretta.
AQuESTT
The NDE AQuESTT framework is based on several indicators for which districts and schools are classified as Excellent, Great, Good, or Needs Support to Improve.
The determination of state classifications is based on the following data:
- NSCAS state assessment scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and math for students in grades 3-8.
- Student growth by looking at the same student from one year to the next.
- Reduction in non-proficiency scores from previous years.
- Percentage of students in 11th grade on track to meet college readiness benchmarks on the ACT.
- The percentage of students participating in state assessments.
- High school 4-year and 7-year graduation rates.
- Reduction of chronic absenteeism - defined as students missing 10% or more of instructional time.
- Progress toward English Language proficiency for English Language (EL) students as measured by the English Language Proficiency Assessment.
- Science proficiency for students in grades 5, 8 and 11.
- Percent of students who did not receive any out-of-school suspensions.
LPS AQuESTT Rating (2020-2025)
| School Year | AQuESTT Classification |
| 2023-2024 | Good |
| 2024-2025 | Good |
There were eight schools that received the classification of Excellent, 17 received Great, 30 received Good and five schools received Needs Support to Improve. More information about specific schools can be found on the Nebraska Department of Education’s website.
“LPS continues to share our concerns with NDE that tenet indicators and adjustments unfairly disadvantage schools with greater percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch,” said Salem. “While standardized test scores can provide a broad snapshot, they are also highly correlated with poverty and often reflect the circumstances of our most vulnerable learners as much as their academic skills.”
NSCAS Growth (grades 3-8)
NSCAS Growth is used as part of AQuESTT reporting framework by NDE. Each spring, students take the assessment in third through eighth grades for English Language Arts (ELA) and math, and fifth and eighth grades in science.
Salem said, “While LPS remains in-line with state proficiency levels it is important to remember that standardized scores do not tell the full story of our students. The data does underscore the importance of addressing opportunity gaps alongside instructional improvement efforts as our schools focus on more than just test scores. Our schools will continue to work with families to address attendance, language proficiency, special education needs and more each day.”
2025 NSCAS English Language Arts Grades 3-8 (percent proficient)
| Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | |
| State | 57% | 60% | 56% | 59% | 58% | 63% |
| LPS | 55% | 57% | 52% | 58% | 58% | 62% |
2025 NSCAS Math Grades 3-8 (percent proficient)
| Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | |
| State | 60% | 61% | 59% | 56% | 55% | 57% |
| LPS | 56% | 54% | 51% | 54% | 55% | 58% |
2025 NSCAS Science Grades 5 and 8 (percent proficient)
| Grade 5 | Grade 8 | |
| State | 83% | 76% |
| LPS | 77% | 75% |
More information about specific schools can be found on the Nebraska Department of Education’s website.
Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth
Like many other Nebraska school districts, LPS uses Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth tests in reading and math during the fall and winter. The MAP Growth tests provide information about LPS student achievement in reading and math compared to the national norm group. It also gives schools information about individual students and their individual growth between the two MAP testing events. MAP Growth data is not included in the NDE AQuESTT classifications.
Fall 2025 MAP Median Student Achievement Percentiles
| Grade | LPS Map Math Percentile Rank |
LPS Map Reading Percentile Rank |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 59 |
| Grade 5 | 54 | 60 |
| Grade 6 | 57 | 60 |
| Grade 7 | 63 | 63 |
| Grade 8 | 63 | 60 |
MAP percentile rank represents the national average based on national norms, therefore the national norm is always 50.
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)
While not included in AQuESTT classifications, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) fulfills the statutory requirement for Nebraska’s reading law. Students who have not met the threshold set by the state receive an Individual Reading Improvement Plan (IRIP). This universal screener is administered to students in grades kindergarten, first and second grade three times a year - fall, winter and spring.
Percent of students who qualify for an IRIP based on DIBELS performance during 2024-2025 school year
| Grade | Fall 2024-2025 | Spring 2024-2025 |
| Kindergarten | 38% | 11% |
| First Grade | 14% | 8% |
| Second Grade | 17% | 12% |
Salem said, “We are proud of the progress our schools are making to support students at their current level and accelerate growth. The district’s DIBELS (K–2) data from last year illustrates a hard-earned improvement showing the impact of early literacy instruction.”
For the 2025-2026 school year and beyond, LPS is working with the NDE on the Nebraska Literacy Project to raise literacy scores across the district. Part of that work includes training teachers in literacy approaches to support struggling readers, especially those who may also be receiving special education services.
Junior (Class of 2026) ACT Scores and Proficiency
Each spring, every 11th grade student in LPS - and across the state - takes the ACT at school. Students who do not participate in the ACT exam at school in April are not reflected in the school’s composite score. However, NDE does count those students as non-proficient when used in the AQuESTT accountability model. AQuESTT does not use the composite score, but instead calculates the percent of students who are considered on track or college and career-ready based on their subject-specific test scores.
LPS Junior ACT scores remain above the state composite in every subject subtest.
Using the ACT scores, NDE converts subject-area scale scores into proficiency percentages to report how students perform relative to state academic expectations.
Three-Year High School ACT Scores (11th Grade - Class of 2026)
Nebraska
| Year | English | Math | Reading | Science | Composite |
| 2022-2023 | 17.6 | 18.6 | 19.0 | 19.1 | 18.7 |
| 2023-2024 | 17.5 | 18.6 | 19.1 | 19.0 | 18.7 |
| 2024-2025 | 17.2 | 18.3 | 18.4 | 18.8 | 18.3 |
Lincoln Public Schools
| Year | English | Math | Reading | Science | Composite |
| 2022-2023 | 17.8 | 19.1 | 19.7 | 19.4 | 19.1 |
| 2023-2024 | 18.0 | 19.5 | 20.2 | 19.5 | 19.4 |
| 2024-2025 | 17.3 | 18.9 | 19.0 | 19.1 | 18.7 |
Three-Year 11th Grade (Class of 2026) ACT Percent Proficient
| ELA 22-23 |
ELA 23-24 |
ELA 24-25 |
Math 22-23 |
Math 23-24 |
Math 24-25 |
Science 22-23 |
Science 23-24 |
Science 24-25 |
|
| State | 46% | 45% | 43% | 42% | 42% | 41% | 49% | 49% | 48% |
| LPS | 43% | 47% | 41% | 42% | 45% | 43% | 48% | 49% | 47% |
Note: More information about specific schools can be found on the Nebraska Department of Education’s website.
Graduating Senior (Class of 2025) ACT Scores
Graduating senior ACT scores are different from the junior ACT proficiency report. This data represents any student from the graduating class of 2025 who took the ACT at any time between sophomore and senior year. While it is the same assessment, many LPS students take the ACT again as seniors and earn a better score after additional coursework.
“Our strategic plan places emphasis on identifying and supporting more of our students to take differentiated and honors coursework and these rigorous academic experiences help students on exams such as the ACT,” said Salem. “Our focus on literacy and critical analysis has paid off with the Reading score reaching 20.5, the highest Reading performance since 2020-2021. Math scores of 19.6 are also the highest math subtest score in the last four years.”
ACT graduating class (5-year history)
National results
| School Year | Number | English | Math | Reading | Science | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 1,295,349 | 19.6 | 19.9 | 20.9 | 20.4 | 20.3 |
| 2021-2022 | 1,349,644 | 19.0 | 19.3 | 20.4 | 19.9 | 19.8 |
| 2022-2023 | 1,386,335 | 18.6 | 19.0 | 20.1 | 19.6 | 19.5 |
| 2023-2024 | 1,374,791 | 18.6 | 19.0 | 20.1 | 19.6 | 19.4 |
| 2024-2025 | 1,380,130 | 18.4 | 18.9 | 20.0 | 19.6 | 19.4 |
State results
| School Year | Number | English | Math | Reading | Science | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 21,627 | 19.1 | 19.6 | 20.7 | 20.2 | 20.0 |
| 2021-2022 | 24,370 | 18.6 | 19.1 | 19.8 | 19.6 | 19.4 |
| 2022-2023 | 24,565 | 18.3 | 18.9 | 19.5 | 19.4 | 19.2 |
| 2023-2024 | 24,581 | 18.1 | 18.8 | 19.5 | 19.4 | 19.1 |
| 2024-2025 | 24,160 | 18.2 | 18.9 | 19.6 | 19.4 | 19.2 |
LPS results
| School Year | Number | English | Math | Reading | Science | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 2,395 | 19.3 | 20.1 | 21.6 | 20.8 | 20.6 |
| 2021-2022 | 2,780 | 18.4 | 19.3 | 20.1 | 19.5 | 19.5 |
| 2022-2023 | 2,813 | 18.4 | 19.5 | 20.0 | 19.6 | 19.5 |
| 2023-2024 | 2,769 | 18.1 | 19.2 | 19.8 | 19.6 | 19.3 |
| 2024-2025 | 2,801 | 18.4 | 19.6 | 20.5 | 19.7 | 19.7 |
More information about the Graduating Senior (Class of 2025) ACT Scores can be found here.
Graduation Rates
LPS continues to maintain a graduation rate above the 2024-2029 LPS Strategic Plan goal of 87% for the class of 2025.
LPS and NDE use different formulas for evaluating and assessing the high school graduation rate in the school district. For more than 25 years, LPS has followed the general rule of calculating on-time graduation rates for students who start as ninth graders in the school district and graduate in four years on time. NDE calculates the graduation rate using any student who was enrolled in an LPS high school at any point during high school, even if they enrolled for the last semester of their senior year. For AQuESTT, the graduation rate includes both 4-year and 7-year data.
Using the LPS formula, the 2025 graduation rate decreased slightly from 87.6% to 87.2%. Using the NDE method, the graduation rate decreased one percent from 85.4% to 84.4%. The AQuESTT NDE 7-year graduation rate improved from 85.1% to 87.2%.
“School Improvement Teams regularly review names, not just numbers, using tools such as the LPS Early Warning System, attendance reports, and other data to identify students who may be at risk of falling behind,” said Salem. “Through this process, schools are able to connect data with action by coordinating supports, monitoring interventions and celebrating growth.”
LPS 4-Year Longitudinal Graduation Rate by Race/Ethnicity
| Year | All Students | American Indian or Alaska Native |
Asian | Black/ African American |
Hispanic | White | Two or More Races |
| 2019 | 83.6% | 68.8% | 86.1% | 72.3% | 76.0% | 87.2% | 74.0% |
| 2020 | 82.5% | 57.1% | 90.5% | 65.5% | 67.3% | 87.3% | 72.5% |
| 2021 | 81.9% | 52.6% | 92.5% | 64.9% | 72.2% | 85.8% | 71.3% |
| 2022 | 83.9% | 41.4% | 90.3% | 70.4% | 72.1% | 88.5% | 76.7% |
| 2023 | 83.9% | 57.1% | 91.6% | 77.1% | 71.9% | 87.6% | 75.5% |
| 2024 | 87.6% | 55.6% | 92.4% | 86.3% | 80.8% | 90.4% | 78.2% |
| 2025 | 87.2% | 47.1% | 89.6% | 84.8% | 75.5% | 91.2% | 83.5% |
NDE 4-Year Longitudinal Graduation Rate by Race/Ethnicity
| Year | All Students | American Indian or Alaska Native |
Asian | Black/ African American |
Hispanic | White | Two or More Races |
| 2019 | 81.8% | 61.1% | 85.8% | 71.4% | 73.7% | 85.6% | 73.0% |
| 2020 | 80.8% | 57.9% | 89.1% | 64.4% | 65.3% | 85.8% | 71.2% |
| 2021 | 80.5% | 54.6% | 92.2% | 63.0% | 71.1% | 84.6% | 69.2% |
| 2022 | 82.3% | 40.0% | 86.6% | 68.6% | 71.4% | 87.4% | 75.2% |
| 2023 | 82.4% | 60.9% | 92.4% | 73.9% | 70.5% | 86.3% | 74.7% |
| 2024 | 85.4% | 50.0% | 88.6% | 79.7% | 77.1% | 89.3% | 77.2% |
| 2025 | 84.4% | 45.5% | 88.0% | 79.3% | 71.1% | 89.3% | 82.2% |
NDE 7-Year Longitudinal Graduation Rate by Race/Ethnicity
| Year | All Students | American Indian or Alaska Native |
Asian | Black/ African American |
Hispanic | White | Two or More Races |
| 2018 | 87.6% | -- | 89.7% | 75.0% | 79.3% | 91.1% | 81.5% |
| 2019 | 85.5% | 72.2% | 91.3% | 75.2% | 78.8% | 88.7% | 76.5% |
| 2020 | 85.1% | 73.7% | 94.1% | 70.2% | 73.0% | 88.8% | 78.4% |
| 2021 | 85.1% | 68.2% | 93.4% | 69.5% | 78.8% | 88.3% | 76.7% |
| 2022 | 87.2% | 48.8% | 92.6% | 75.3% | 79.3% | 91.3% | 80.8% |
Note: The 7-year graduation rate will be calculated 3 years after the expected graduation rate. For example, 2020 is used with 2023 for AQuESTT Calculations.
AQuESTT Longitudinal Graduation Rate by Race/Ethnicity*
| Year | All Students | American Indian or Alaska Native |
Asian | Black/ African American |
Hispanic | White | Two or More Races |
| 2019 | 85.7% | 68.5% | 88.0% | 78.9% | 78.5% | 88.4% | 79.5% |
| 2020 | 85.2% | 58.9% | 89.3% | 73.1% | 75.3% | 88.8% | 78.2% |
| 2021 | 84.0% | - | 91.0% | 68.9% | 75.1% | 87.8% | 75.3% |
| 2022 | 83.8% | 55.8% | 88.9% | 71.8% | 75.0% | 88.0% | 75.8% |
| 2023 | 83.7% | 67.1% | 93.3% | 72.1% | 71.7% | 87.5% | 76.5% |
| 2024 | 85.3% | 58.9% | 91.0% | 74.7% | 77.9% | 88.8% | 76.9% |
| 2025 | 85.8% | 47.1% | 90.2% | 77.3% | 75.1% | 90.3% | 81.5% |
*AQuESTT Rate= .49 (NDE 7-year graduation rate) + .51 (NDE 4-year graduation rate)
“A common misperception is that students who do not graduate in 4-years are considered dropouts,” said Salem. “This is not the case, and LPS works hard to ensure that students who do not graduate with their four-year cohort remain connected to LPS and work towards a diploma. This may occur through our Graduation Pathways program, or they may return to their home high school and continue their coursework in their fifth, sixth or seventh years.”
More information about specific schools can be found on the Nebraska Department of Education’s website.
Published: November 25, 2025, Updated: November 26, 2025
