The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Math. The lowest is 79% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Prairie Elementary School
Prairie Elementary sits in Cottonwood, a small rural town on the Camas Prairie in north central Idaho, just west of US Route 95 between Grangeville and Lewiston. The highway was re-routed years ago to a bypass east of town, separating through-traffic from the center. Cottonwood began as a string of way station shelters for prospectors and mining suppliers headed south to the Florence and Warrens mining areas, and it took its name from the cottonwood trees that once lined the creek. Today the town has a quiet residential and modest commercial character. The Dog Bark Park Inn, a hotel shaped like a beagle, is a locally known landmark, and the town sits near the Nez Perce National Historical Park. A freight railroad, the BG and CM, has its southern terminus here. Publicly reported sources did not identify specific major employers, parks, libraries, or public transit serving daily life.
The school is a regular public elementary serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, part of Cottonwood Joint School District. It is small for its grade band. The student body is almost entirely white, with a very small number of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here. The district also operates Prairie Junior/Senior High School in Cottonwood, and St. John Bosco Academy, a Catholic school offering classical Catholic education from kindergarten through twelfth grade, provides an alternative option in town.
On state testing, Prairie Elementary turns in strong results. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through six are high, with most grades showing the large majority of tested students scoring proficient or above. ELA results follow a similar pattern, with the earlier grades particularly strong and the upper grades still solid. Science was tested only in fifth grade, and those results were suppressed, so the school's science performance is not available from this data. Average scale scores and participation rates were not reported. A parent may want to ask the school directly about science outcomes and about how the school supports students who are not yet proficient, since the proficiency numbers are strong but the data does not break out growth or subgroup performance.
The housing market in the Cottonwood zip code is modest by Idaho standards. Typical home values sit below the state benchmark and just under the national benchmark, and values have been rising at a gentle pace. Estimated monthly mortgage costs at current rates are manageable relative to national median income, with a price-to-income ratio that looks favorable compared to many parts of the country. No rental data was available for this area. We looked for major new housing developments and found none identified in publicly reported sources. The town's population declined over earlier decades but recent projections show modest growth, and no large-scale development appears to be reshaping the community.
We searched for parent-relevant changes in Cottonwood Joint School District and found none meeting a lasting-impact bar, so there is little to report on recent strategic initiatives or program shifts. Program offerings, staffing levels, attendance data, discipline data, and course access information were not available in the data provided. A family considering Prairie Elementary would be looking at a small, academically strong rural school in an affordable community with limited commercial activity and a quiet pace of life. The school's test results are its clearest strength, and the gaps in the data are ones a parent could reasonably fill by talking with the school directly.
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