The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cool Spring Colony School
Cool Spring Colony School in Rudyard, Montana, is no longer open, so any parent or resident reading about it today is looking at a closed school. The state’s records mark it as having closed; it served only middle school grades, a single grade band labeled "M through M," and it was part of the Chester-Joplin-Inverness Elementary district. Because the school is closed, a number of the categories a family would normally examine have no data available. There is no enrollment figure, no breakdown of race or ethnicity, no information on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, no data on special education or English learner populations. Similarly, no record exists for disciplinary actions, course access, or staffing. A parent considering this area would be looking at the district’s other schools, not this one.
The assessment picture is similarly thin, but it does exist for a single year. For the 2022-23 school year, a very small group of students was tested in math, English language arts, and science. In math, about a quarter of those tested reached proficiency. In English language arts, half did. In science, none of the students tested reached the proficiency benchmark. The tested group was so small that drawing firm conclusions is difficult. The school had full participation in each of the three tested subjects. There are no multi-year academic trends available; this is a single snapshot. State testing data beyond this window was not present in the record, and there is no graduation rate because the school did not serve high school grades.
The school sat in Rudyard, a small, rural unincorporated community on the Hi-Line in Hill County. Rudyard was established around the Great Northern Railway and today sits amid wheat farms. The population has been roughly flat over the last two decades. Amtrak’s Empire Builder passes through but does not stop; the nearest station is in Havre, a substantial drive to the east. The local economy is driven by wheat farming, and institutional employers include the North Star Public School district, which serves Rudyard and the surrounding towns of Hingham, Gildford, and Kremlin, and small civic anchors like the Depot Museum and the Hi-Line Vintage Motors Museum. Housing values in the area’s zip code were, as of recent data, well below statewide and national benchmarks. The typical home price here sits meaningfully lower than Montana’s average, which itself has climbed notably in recent years.
For the Chester-Joplin-Inverness Elementary district, researchers found no publicly reported evidence of recent lasting changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax adjustments that would be of sustained interest to parents. The district brief came back with nothing to report on that front. That absence of news is itself information: a parent moving into the area would not be walking into a district in the middle of a major overhaul or recent controversy, at least not one that surfaced in the available sources.
Overall, Cool Spring Colony School is a closed entity, and the record reflects that. The assessment data from its final year shows a small group of middle school students with uneven results across subjects, particularly low in science. For a family looking at the Rudyard area today, the active schools within the North Star Public School district, including the high school and middle school located in Rudyard itself, would be the relevant places to investigate. The housing market is relatively affordable compared to the state and national picture, the community is stable with little growth pressure, and the economy is anchored by agriculture and local public institutions.
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