Idaho Arts Charter School, Nampa ID

Original Research by School Decision on Idaho Arts Charter School

Idaho Arts Charter School sits on 5th Street North in Nampa, a city that began as a railroad stop and irrigation-era farming hub and has grown into Idaho's third-most-populous municipality within the fast-expanding Boise-Nampa metro. The school serves kindergarten through twelfth grade on a single campus, though its prekindergarten roster is empty in the current data. Enrollment totals well over a thousand students, with the largest concentrations in the elementary and middle grades and notably smaller cohorts in the upper high school years. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The student body is predominantly white, with a sizable Hispanic presence and small representations from other racial and ethnic groups. Data on individualized education programs and English-learner status was not reported, so those details are absent here.

As a charter school, Idaho Arts Charter operates with lottery-based admissions when grades are oversubscribed, and the school has been in the midst of a deliberate expansion plan aimed at growing its K-8 grade sizes and raising a planned enrollment cap. That growth context matters for families considering entry, since available seats in popular grades may be limited and subject to lottery outcomes. The smaller high school cohorts suggest the upper grades are still building toward the scale of the lower grades, which can mean a more intimate but less heavily resourced experience for older students.

On state assessments, the school's English language arts results are a relative strength. Proficiency across grades three through eight sits in a moderate-to-solid range, with fourth grade standing out as particularly strong and the middle grades holding steady above the lower elementary starting point. The ELA picture is generally consistent and encouraging through the tested grades. Mathematics tells a more uneven story. Third grade is middling, fourth grade is strong, and then proficiency drops noticeably in fifth and sixth grades. Seventh grade recovers somewhat, but eighth grade falls to the weakest position in the tested band. Science follows a similar downward arc, with fifth-grade results in a reasonable range but eighth-grade proficiency dropping sharply. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly how math and science instruction are sequenced and supported as students move from elementary into middle school. State assessment data was not available for high school grades, which is consistent with the ISAT's grade-three-through-eight and grade-ten testing structure, though no grade-ten results appeared in the provided data either. No graduation rate was reported, no course-access or program-offering details were provided, and civil-rights, discipline, staffing, and attendance fields were all empty in the payload. These gaps mean the picture here is limited to enrollment, demographics, and elementary-and-middle-grade test results.

Nampa itself offers a practical setting for families. The historic downtown core is walkable, anchored by Library Square with its train depot museum, public library, Lloyd Square Park, a farmer's market, and street festivals. Outside that core, the city is car-oriented, with Interstate 84 providing four exits and state highways connecting the area. Major employers include food-processing operations like Amalgamated Sugar and Sorrento-Lactalis, plus Amazon, ON Semiconductor, and several manufacturing firms, giving the local economy a working-industrial character alongside emerging technology and healthcare sectors. Northwest Nazarene University and the College of Western Idaho bring a student presence to the city. Housing in the school's zip code sits below the Idaho state benchmark but above the national figure, and rents are moderate. With the broader metro ranked among the fastest-growing in the country, families considering this area should expect continued development pressure and evolving community character.

Idaho Arts Charter fits families drawn to an arts-integrated charter model within a growing, affordable corner of the Boise-Nampa corridor, with the understanding that academic preparation in reading is steadier than in math and science, and that the high school program is still finding its scale.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 49%

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 9 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 339%

School 39% · District 39%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 463%

School 63% · District 63%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

even with state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Science

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 14 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolIDAHO ARTS CHARTER SCHOOL INC., same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income35%Higher-income49%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income37%Higher-income57%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income61%17 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income49%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income50%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income34%4 pp gap