The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 42%.
Original Research by School Decision on Rise Charter School
RISE Charter Schoolsits in Kimberly, a small but rapidly growing city in Twin Falls County, part of the Twin Falls metropolitan area. The town grew from its irrigation-based agricultural roots into a residential community where most homeowners live and commute a short distance to Twin Falls for work. Owner-occupied housing predominates, and the population has been climbing steadily since the most recent census, with publicly reported projections showing continued annual growth. The commercial footprint is modest, mostly limited to a main corridor, so the city reads as a bedroom community rather than a job center.
The school serves an unusual grade span, beginning in upper elementary and extending into the early years of high school but stopping short of the final grades. There is no graduation rate to report, because the school does not serve graduating seniors. Families considering RISE should understand that their student would need to transition to another school for the upper high school years.
Enrollment is small, with each grade holding roughly a classroom's worth of students. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic minority and a very small number of students from other backgrounds. Just over a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a relatively low share. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available.
Academic results are hard to read clearly, and the reason is the school's size. Idaho's ISAT proficiency rates for most grades and subjects at RISE are either suppressed or reported only as wide ranges, a pattern that reflects very small test-taking groups triggering state privacy thresholds. The single fully reported proficiency figure comes from middle-elementary English language arts, where somewhat fewer than half of tested students reached proficiency. For several other grades and subjects where tested counts were small but reported, the proficient count was zero, though the accompanying ranges leave the true rate uncertain. Average scale scores and participation rates are missing across the board. A parent trying to judge academic quality from state testing alone will find the picture incomplete and may want to look into this further with the school.
No meaningful multi-year trend is available. The trend data contains only a few points, all from the same school year, so there is no before-and-after comparison to draw.
Housing in the surrounding area is moderately priced relative to the state benchmark but above the national one. The typical home value sits below Idaho's statewide figure and well above the national midpoint. Estimated monthly mortgage costs run higher than local rents by a meaningful margin, and the price-to-income ratio is on the higher side, pointing to a market where buying requires a solid household income. Rent data specific to the area was not available. For families relocating, Kimberly offers a small-town setting with a growing housing stock but limited rental information.
The parent district, Kimberly District, relies on a recurring supplemental levy to fund teacher and support staff salaries beyond what the state allocates. The levy runs on a set approval cycle, meaning families should expect periodic votes that shape both property tax levels and staffing. This affects the broader district context in which RISE operates, even though as a charter school it carries its own governance.
Information on course offerings, extracurricular programs, staffing ratios, discipline data, attendance rates, and Title I status was not available in the provided data. Civil rights reporting was also absent. These gaps mean a family evaluating RISE would need to contact the school directly for details on what the academic program looks like day to day, what supports exist, and how the school handles student conduct and engagement.
What the data does show is a small charter school in a growing small-town setting, serving an unusual grade range with a fairly homogeneous student body, where state testing results are too sparse to form a clear academic judgment. The school's fit depends less on published metrics and more on whether its program, size, and structure match what a family wants for a student moving through the middle grades.
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