Enrollment
214
Elementary
DISTRICT 206 · STATE 277
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 020039000602
Nikiski North Star Elementary
45600 Holt Lamplight Rd, Kenai, AK 99611 · (907) 776-2600 · Kenai Peninsula Borough
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY42-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL214 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 40% of Alaska public elementary schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alaska public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
18 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.0:1 · STATE 15.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
49%
105 students
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 65%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 1 | 0% |
| Kindergarten | 33 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 37 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 32 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 38 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 36 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 37 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (33) is 11% smaller than its 5th grade class (37).
Student demographics
51%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 48% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
AK STAR + Alaska Science 2024-25 . % Advanced + ProficientEnglish Language Arts
32.7%
AK avg 36.1% . +7.5pp since 2023
Math
43.6%
AK avg 34.6% . +10.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the AK STAR + Alaska Science, Alaska's statewide test, about 33 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 44 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alaska schools, those numbers are about 36 and 35. Reading and writing scores are up about 8 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 11 points.
AK STAR + Alaska Science results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 32.7% | 43.6% |
| 2023-24 | 25.2% | 32.7% |
% Advanced + Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: AK STAR + Alaska Science. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
36.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.4%
based on AK schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+0.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 37% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 36% typical for Alaska schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alaska's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Nikiski North Star Elementary
Nikiski North Star Elementary's state test result (36.7% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikiski North Star Elementary this school | 214 | 49.1% | 36.7% |
| West Homer Elementary Homer | 211 | 46.4% | 57.6% |
| Chapman School Anchor Point | 168 | 51.2% | 48.3% |
| Paul Banks Elementary Homer | 189 | 40.7% | N/A |
| Soldotna Elementary Soldotna | 266 | 44.0% | 46.9% |
| Redoubt Elementary Soldotna | 321 | 50.5% | 43.0% |
Matched among Alaska elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Nikiski North Star Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alaska | In Kenai Peninsula Borough |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 36.7% | #82 of 134 | #10 of 13 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 43.6% | #59 of 150 ▲ 28 | #7 of 15 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 32.7% | #94 of 150 ▲ 22 | #11 of 15 ▲ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 214 | #113 of 169 | #5 of 17 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.1:1 | #6 of 125 | #1 of 8 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 50.9% | #101 of 125 | #7 of 8 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 49.1% | #58 of 142 | #5 of 15 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -41.8% | #5 of 115 | #2 of 10 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
214
+16 (+8%) vs 2020
-34% since 1990-91, when it was 324
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
was 9.9:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 214 | 17.7 | 12.1:1 | 49% (105) |
| 2023-24 | 252 | 17.5 | 14.4:1 | 48% (120) |
| 2022-23 | 242 | 18.6 | 13.0:1 | 52% (125) |
| 2020-21 | 198 | 20 | 9.9:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 368 | 25.2 | 14.6:1 | 51% (186) |
| 2015-16 | 371 | 27 | 13.7:1 | 47% (173) |
| 2010-11 | 421 | 27 | 15.6:1 | 56% (235) |
| 2000-01 | 278 | 14 | 19.9:1 | 32% (88) |
| 1990-91 | 324 | 18 | 18.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Nikiski North Star Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 42% (368 to 214); teachers down 30% (25.2 to 17.7).
About Nikiski North Star Elementary
Nikiski North Star Elementary sits in Kenai, Alaska, and is classified as an elementary school. It serves 214 students in pre-K through 5. For comparison, elementary schools in Alaska average about 277 students.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District runs 42 schools with a combined 8,510 students. Nikiski North Star Elementary is one of them.
By race and ethnicity, Nikiski North Star Elementary is 67% White. The rest of enrollment is 19% multiracial, 8% Native American, and 4% Hispanic. Census estimates put the White share of Kenai Peninsula Borough's population at about 79%. The chance that two students picked at random at Nikiski North Star Elementary belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 51%.
Dividing enrollment by its 17.7 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 12.1:1. The average ratio among elementary schools in Alaska is 15.3:1, higher than at this school. Nikiski North Star Elementary reports 49% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Nikiski North Star Elementary is graded C+ by allk12, scoring above 40% of Alaska public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Nikiski North Star Elementary posts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 36.7%, compared with a predicted 36.4%. It is not in the top or bottom 10% of Alaska schools on BeatsExpectations.
Federal survey data for Kenai Peninsula Borough show that median household income is about $80,538, about 30% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 7%. A total of 42 public schools operate in Kenai Peninsula Borough, serving about 8,510 students.
Nikiski Middle/Senior High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 5.1 miles away. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within ten miles. On proficiency, Nikiski North Star Elementary is ahead of the 29.8% nearby average, ranking 1st of 6.
Federal data place Nikiski North Star Elementary in the Rural: Distant locale, which means it is in rural territory some distance from an urban area.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the student count climbed from 198 to 214. There were more students per teacher in 2024-25 (12.1:1) than in 2020-21 (9.9:1).
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss science fairs, picture day, and bus routes at Nikiski North Star Elementary. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Kenai Peninsula Borough at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
60,413
Census ACS
Median income
$80,538
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
30%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
42
8,510 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
- ConnectionsCombined · 1,188 students
- Soldotna High SchoolHigh · 695 students
- Kenai Central High SchoolHigh · 525 students
- Mt. View ElementaryElementary · 449 students
- Kenai Middle SchoolMiddle · 408 students
- Kalifornsky Beach ElementaryElementary · 384 students
Other schools in Kenai
- Kenai Central High SchoolHigh · 525 students
- Mt. View ElementaryElementary · 449 students
- Kenai Middle SchoolMiddle · 408 students
- Kaleidoscope School of Arts & ScienceElementary · 205 students
- Aurora Borealis Charter SchoolElementary · 199 students
- Kenai Alternative High SchoolHigh · 45 students
Nearby schools
- Nikiski Middle/Senior High School5.1 mi · 276
- Kaleidoscope School of Arts & Science6.4 mi · 205
- Marathon School6.8 mi · 8
- Kenai Central High School7.3 mi · 525
- Kenai Middle School7.4 mi · 408
- Aurora Borealis Charter School7.4 mi · 199
Frequently asked questions
About Nikiski North Star ElementaryHow many students attend Nikiski North Star Elementary?
Nikiski North Star Elementary enrolls approximately 214 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Nikiski North Star Elementary serve?
Nikiski North Star Elementary serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Nikiski North Star Elementary?
Approximately 12.1:1 students per teacher at Nikiski North Star Elementary.
How diverse is Nikiski North Star Elementary?
Nikiski North Star Elementary reports a student body of 67% White, 4% Hispanic, 0% Black, 1% Asian, 19% Two or more.
Who oversees Nikiski North Star Elementary?
Nikiski North Star Elementary is overseen by Kenai Peninsula Borough School District in Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.