Nebraska school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections for Nebraska school boards were held on November 8, 2016. Primary elections were held for races where more than two candidates file for each seat up for election. Five of the six Nebraska school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held school board elections for 18 seats in 2016.

Here are several quick facts about those school board elections:

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Omaha Public Schools with 51,069 K-12 students.
• The smallest Nebraska school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Grand Island Public Schools with 9,313 K-12 students.
• Omaha Public Schools had the most seats up for election in 2016 out of Nebraska's largest districts with five seats on the ballot.
• Three districts tied for the fewest seats up for election with three seats up for election each.

The districts listed below served 105,153 K-12 students during the 2012-2013 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each and its school board elections.

2016 Nebraska School Board Elections
District	Primary date	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Bellevue Public Schools	5/10/2016	11/8/2016	4	3	6	10,085
Grand Island Public Schools	5/10/2016	11/8/2016	4	4	9	9,313
Millard Public Schools	5/10/2016	11/8/2016	4	3	6	23,549
Omaha Public Schools	5/10/2016	11/8/2016	4	5	9	51,069
Papillion-La Vista Public Schools	5/10/2016	11/8/2016	4	3	6	11,137

Election trends

Trends in Nebraska school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief

The state's 2015 school board elections saw more candidates run per seat than the 2014 elections. There were also fewer unopposed seats in 2015 compared to 2014. While four of Nebraska's largest districts held elections in 2014, only Lincoln Public Schools held an election in 2015. The Lincoln Public Schools election brought more newcomers to the state's largest school boards than the 2014 elections did.

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in Nebraska's school board elections. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2015 were nonpartisan.

Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

In 2015, the election held in Lincoln Public Schools attracted an average of 2.67 candidates per seat. This was higher than the 2014 elections, when an average of 1.46 candidates ran per seat on the ballot. No seats were unopposed in 2015, but the 2014 elections saw six seats—46.15 percent of those on the ballot—go unopposed.

Incumbency advantage

See also: School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief

One incumbent ran to retain her seat in the Lincoln Public Schools election in 2015, but she lost her bid for re-election. Newcomers took all three seats on the ballot that year.

By contrast, in 2014, incumbents won all but one seat on the ballot. Thirteen seats were up for election, and 12 incumbents ran to retain their seats. Half of them had to defeat challengers to win re-election, but the others were left unopposed. The newcomer elected to the board that year defeated other challengers for the only open seat.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2015 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

The map above details the success rates of incumbent who ran to retain their school board seats in the largest school districts in each state. States depicted in gray did not hold school board elections.

Data table

Nebraska school board elections, 2014 - 2015
	2014	2015
All candidates
Seats up	13	3
Candidates	19	8
Candidates/seat	1.46	2.67
Unopposed seats	6	0
% unopposed	46.15%	0.00%
% seats won by newcomers	7.69%	100.00%
Incumbents
Sought re-election	12	1
Unopposed	6	0
Retained	12	0
% retained	100.00%	0.00%

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Nebraska

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota), Nebraska had a greater percentage of fourth grade students score at or above proficient in math and reading than South Dakota, but a lower percentage compared to Iowa and Kansas. The best scores in the state were earned by fourth graders in math, with 45 percent scoring at or above proficient.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Nebraska	45%	36%	37%	37%
Iowa	48%	36%	38%	37%
Kansas	48%	40%	38%	36%
South Dakota	40%	38%	32%	36%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Nebraska and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Nebraska schools reported a graduation rate of 88.5 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, second highest in the country.

In Nebraska, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 21.5.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Nebraska	88.5%	First	21.5	84%	1734	4%
Iowa	89.7%	First	22.1	66%	1763	3%
Kansas	85.7%	Second	21.8	75%	1752	6%
South Dakota	82.7%	Third	21.9	78%	1760	3%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Nebraska was lower than the national average at 2.1 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.2 percent in the 2011-2012 school year..

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Nebraska
	Nebraska	U.S.
Total population:	1,893,765	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	76,824	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	88.1%	73.6%
Black/African American:	4.7%	12.6%
Asian:	2%	5.1%
Native American:	0.9%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	10%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	90.7%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	29.3%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$52,997	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	14.6%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Nebraska. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Nebraska

Nebraska voted Republican in all six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Nebraska, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nebraska had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Nebraska coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Nebraska
• United States congressional delegations from Nebraska
• Public policy in Nebraska
• Endorsers in Nebraska
• Nebraska fact checks
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See also

Nebraska	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Nebraska List of school districts in Nebraska	School board elections, 2016 Nebraska school board elections, 2015 Nebraska school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey