The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in English language arts. The lowest is 41% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Gooding Elementary School
Gooding Elementary sits in a small agricultural town that serves as the county seat of Gooding County. The community's identity is tied to farming and food production. The Glanbia cheese factory, publicly reported as the world's largest barrel cheese producer, anchors the local economy, while the surrounding county runs dairy operations, onion fields, trout production, and beef cattle ranches. The town has a compact grid layout with Highway 46 running through its center, a traditional downtown, and a public library. The Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind occupies its own large campus here, and the College of Southern Idaho maintains a local center. Growth has been slow and incremental, consistent with the area's agricultural small-town character.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Gooding Joint District. Enrollment is moderate for an elementary school in a town of this size. The student body is roughly split between white and Hispanic students, with a slight white majority. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, reflecting the working agricultural character of the community. Data on English learners and special education populations was not available in the provided records.
On Idaho's ISAT assessments for the most recent school year, proficiency results tell a mixed story across grades and subjects. In math, somewhere between a third and just under half of tested students reached proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grades. English language arts showed a clearer upward pattern, with third grade starting lower and fifth grade reaching a level where roughly half of students demonstrated proficiency. Fifth-grade science results were reported only as a suppressed range, so a precise figure is not available. Average scale scores and participation rates were also missing from the data provided. These results suggest a school where a meaningful portion of students are meeting state benchmarks, particularly in the upper elementary grades for reading, but where a substantial number are still working toward grade-level mastery. A parent may want to look into how the school supports students below proficiency and what intervention resources are available.
One of the most distinctive features of the Gooding Joint District is its four-day school week. This is a lasting, district-wide scheduling decision, publicly reported, that affects every family in the district. It shapes childcare needs, weekly routines, and the structure of instructional time. For some families, the compressed week is a benefit. For others, it creates a practical challenge around the extra day off. This is a factor worth weighing directly against a family's own circumstances.
The housing market in Gooding is more affordable than the state and national benchmarks. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit below both Idaho's statewide level and the national figure, and the area has seen a slight recent decline in values rather than the modest appreciation seen at the state level. Estimated mortgage costs relative to national median income suggest the area remains relatively accessible for homeownership compared with many parts of the country. Rental data was not available.
Several data categories that parents often look for were absent from what was provided. There was no Title I status, no discipline or attendance information, no staffing figures, no course or program offerings, and no comparison data positioning the school against neighboring districts. Civil rights data was also empty. For a school at this grade band, there is no graduation rate to report, as the school does not serve high school grades. State testing data does not cover pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first, or second grades, so those grades have no proficiency results by design.
Gooding Elementary is a small-town public school serving a diverse, working-class community in an agricultural region. Its academic results show room for growth alongside some encouraging signs in upper-grade reading. The four-day week and the affordable housing market are defining characteristics that a family will want to weigh on their own terms.
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