The reported proficiency rate for Science is 6%.
Original Research by School Decision on Dodson K-12
Dodson K-12 is a small rural district in Phillips County, Montana. The schools sit in a part of the state where towns are far apart and the population is thin. The district serves roughly ninety-five students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, and it operates three distinct schools: Dodson School for the elementary grades, a dedicated middle school building for grades seven and eight, and Dodson High School. The enrollment is small enough that a family moving here will find a setting where students across grade levels are likely to know one another and where teachers carry responsibility across multiple subjects.
The student body is predominantly American Indian or Alaska Native, with a smaller share of white students and very small numbers of Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students. The district did not report the share of students receiving free or reduced-price meals, and data on special education and English learner populations was also absent, so a parent or guardian should ask the school directly about these support resources. The district is a Title I school system, which generally means a notable portion of students come from lower-income households, but no specific figure was available to back that up from the data.
Academically, the picture is incomplete. The state of Montana recently introduced a new assessment, the MAST, and changed the cut scores for proficiency, which makes multi-year comparisons difficult. For the 2024–25 school year, state testing results in math and English language arts for grades three through eight were suppressed, likely because the tested student group was too small to report without risking individual student identification. Science testing from the prior year, under the older Montana Science Assessment, was reported: among a small group of students tested, a very low share scored at the proficient level or above. The district has no high school testing data in this payload, and no graduation rate was provided. Families may want to ask the district directly for high school outcomes, including graduation rates, college-going rates, and any career or dual-credit offerings. The data did not include any program listings, so course access details are absent.
On the environment side, the district's chronic absenteeism rate stands out sharply when compared with other districts in Phillips County. Placed among the four reporting districts, Dodson's rate falls in the bottom quartile, meaning a substantial share of students miss a significant number of school days. This is the kind of metric a parent would want to discuss with school leadership to understand what is driving it and what supports are in place.
The district's spending per pupil lands in the upper half of its county cohort, above the middle but below the highest-spending peer. Housing in the area is modestly priced relative to the state. The district's weighted home value estimate, which draws primarily on the Malta ZIP code, is well below the Montana median. The national 30-year mortgage rate at the time of this data was a bit above six percent, and the national unemployment rate was just above four percent.
There was no district brief to speak of. The search for recent district changes—budget shifts, leadership transitions, facility projects, or policy updates—turned up nothing of lasting significance, so no such narrative is included here.
Dodson K-12 serves a small, predominantly Native American student population in a remote rural setting. Testing data is limited, chronic absenteeism is a concern relative to neighboring districts, and the range of course offerings is unknown from the available information. For a family considering this district, a direct visit and conversation with the principal would be essential to fill in the gaps that the data simply does not cover.
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