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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
560
Middle
DISTRICT 586 · STATE 411
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160·NCES 310008801317
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL
25211 S 68TH ST, FIRTH, NE 68358 · (402) 791-0020 · Lancaster County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE42-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL560 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.6:1 · STATE 14.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
8%
45 students
DISTRICT 8% · STATE 37%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL→NORRIS HIGH SCHOOL
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
NSCAS 2024-25 . % On Track + AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
67.1%
NE avg 57.6%
Math
61.9%
NE avg 60.6%
What this means: On the NSCAS, Nebraska's statewide test, about 67 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 62 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Nebraska schools, those numbers are about 58 and 61.
Source: NSCAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of NE schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
59.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
73.6%
based on NE schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 60% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 74% typical for Nebraska schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
560
+35 (+7%) vs 2017
Student : Teacher
15.5:1
was 16.1:1
% White
93%
was 91%
% Hispanic
4%
was 5%
% Black
1%
was 1%
% Asian
0%
was 1%
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
About NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL is one of the mid-tier 6-8 campuss in FIRTH, Nebraska, part of NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160, with 560 students on its rolls from grades 6 through 8. By comparison, Nebraska's public schools average about 411 students each, so NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL sits 36% above that benchmark.
Within NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160, which oversees 4 schools and 2,343 students, NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL is one campus in the system.
On the student-mix side, NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL records that nearly all students (93%) are White. The remainder is composed of 4% Hispanic. By comparison, Lancaster County as a whole is about 81% White, so the school skews visibly more White than its surroundings.
On the resource side, On paper, NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL has 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.5:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 14.5:1, putting NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL higher than the state norm the norm. An estimated 8% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Lancaster County (around 32%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.
Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 73.6%; this one comes in at 59.5%, -14.1 points off the demographic line.
In the broader community, ACS estimates for Lancaster County put median household earnings sit near $74,793, roughly 42% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL is one of 97 public schools in Lancaster County (combined enrollment of about 48,123 students).
Nearest neighbor: NORRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, around 0.1 miles off. 3 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL comes 5th of 5 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 69.0%.
The campus sits in a rural setting.
Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count climbed 7%: 525 students in 2018 compared to 560 in 2025.
On this page, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Lancaster County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
326,696
Census ACS
Median income
$74,793
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
42%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
97
48,123 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160
- NORRIS HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 736 students
- NORRIS INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLElementary · 535 students
- NORRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 512 students
Other schools in FIRTH
- NORRIS HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 736 students
- NORRIS INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLElementary · 535 students
- NORRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 512 students
Nearby schools
- NORRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL0.1 mi · 512
- NORRIS HIGH SCHOOL0.1 mi · 736
- NORRIS INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL0.2 mi · 535
- EARLY CHILDHOOD AT STANDING BEAR HS9.4 mi · 21
- STANDING BEAR HIGH SCHOOL9.4 mi · 631
- FREEMAN ELEMENTARY-ADAMS9.7 mi · 280
Frequently asked questions
About NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOLWhat is the total enrollment at NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL?
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL enrolls approximately 560 students in grades 06-08.
What grades does NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL serve?
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL serves grades 06-08.
How many students per teacher at NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL?
Approximately 15.5:1 students per teacher at NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL.
What is the racial breakdown of students at NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL?
At NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL, the student body is approximately 93% White, 4% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL?
NORRIS MIDDLE SCHOOL is overseen by NORRIS SCHOOL DIST 160 in Lancaster County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.