The top reported proficiency rate is 62% in Math. The lowest is 55% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Inkom Elementary School
Inkom Elementary School sits in a small, mainly residential bedroom community for Pocatello, surrounded by the Bannock Mountain Range with Rapid Creek running through. The town was once an industrial cement-manufacturing center. The Ash Grove Cement plant, publicly reported as the dominant local employer for generations, curtailed manufacturing and laid off most of its workers. The facility is now being converted to a cement shipping terminal with no plans for future manufacturing. Since then Inkom has shifted toward a residential character, with many residents commuting to Pocatello for work, where Idaho State University is a major institution. Basic services including postal, banking, grocery, fuel, and vehicle repair keep the town largely self-sufficient for daily needs. The community has a City Hall, police and volunteer fire departments, a post office, an LDS church, and a museum. No public library or public transit system was identified. Outdoor recreation defines the area, with Pebble Creek Ski Area nearby and mountain access all around. The town covers a very small geographic footprint, with a street grid laid out in the town's early days that remains largely unchanged, Main Street serving as the central thoroughfare.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of Marsh Valley Joint District, which spans multiple towns. Enrollment is modest, and the student body is predominantly white with a small Hispanic presence and a handful of students from other racial backgrounds. A relatively small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch compared with many Idaho schools, which lines up with the town's bedroom-community character. IEP and English-learner data were not available. The district's middle school and high school are located in other communities, so Inkom families transition to those campuses after sixth grade.
State assessment results from the most recent ISAT testing year show a mixed but generally solid picture where data was reportable. Fourth-grade math proficiency was reported at a level above what many Idaho elementary schools achieve, with a clear majority of tested students meeting or exceeding standards. Third-grade ELA proficiency landed at about half, and fourth-grade ELA came in somewhat higher, with a solid majority proficient. Several grade-level results were suppressed or reported only as ranges due to small tested counts, which is typical for a school this size. Third-grade math, fifth-grade math, sixth-grade math, fifth-grade ELA, sixth-grade ELA, and fifth-grade science all fell into this category. The ranges provided suggest proficiency could fall anywhere from very low to moderately strong, so a parent may want to look into grade-level detail with the school directly. No average scale scores were available, and no participation rates were reported. The multi-year trend data returned only a single year of points and could not support a reliable change calculation.
Because this is an elementary school serving no high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. Course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance data were not provided in the available records.
Housing in the Inkom zip code carries a typical home value somewhat above the Idaho state benchmark and well above the national benchmark, reflecting the broader mountain-West market. Estimated monthly mortgage costs under current rates run noticeably higher than typical rent, and the price-to-income ratio sits at a level that can stretch household budgets. No rent index data was available for this area. The town has no major new housing developments publicly identified, and population has remained small and relatively stable over several decades.
Marsh Valley Joint District has relied on a voter-approved supplemental levy for an extended span of years to fund teacher and staff salaries, benefits, programs, and daily operations. The most recent levy covered a span of school years and has since expired, meaning the district will need voter approval again to maintain current staffing and program levels. The levy represents a meaningful portion of the district's total budget. No curriculum or pedagogy changes meeting a recent-change threshold were publicly reported.
For a family drawn to a quiet mountain town with outdoor access and a short commute to Pocatello's services and employment, Inkom Elementary offers a small, relatively homogenous peer environment with reasonably strong academic results in the grades where data was reportable. The transitions to district middle and high schools in other communities are part of the package, as is the levy-dependent funding structure that keeps class sizes and programs tied to local voter support.
See more original research from School Decision →