The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Absarokee High School
Absarokee High School serves grades nine through twelve in the small, unincorporated community of Absarokee in Montana’s Stillwater Valley. The school is the sole high school within the Absarokee H S district, a single-building district that operates just this school. The town sits in the foothills of the Beartooth Mountains at the confluence of the Stillwater and East Rosebud Rivers, a setting that shapes daily life. Ranching and agriculture have long anchored the local economy, alongside the Stillwater Mine, a palladium and platinum operation whose workers tend to be more transient than the farming families. The community’s population has been declining, and the housing market reflects a mix of older homes and limited new construction; home values in the zip code run above the national benchmark but below the state average. The town’s main street, Woodard Avenue, includes a few historic structures and the school building itself.
The high school is small. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a modest share of students from low-income households – roughly one in four qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the public record. No enrollment by race or ethnicity shows significant diversity; the few students who are not white are a very small number. The school’s size means that class sections are likely small and that students may receive more individual attention, but this also limits the breadth of course offerings compared to larger high schools.
State testing data does not apply to Absarokee High School. Montana administers the Smarter Balanced assessment in grades three through eight; this school serves only high school grades, so no proficiency results from that test are available. The state also administers a science assessment in certain grade bands, but again, the high school level was not captured in the data provided. The district’s proficiency index, which compares schools across Stillwater County, placed Absarokee High School in the bottom quartile – but that index is built from the same zero values for grades three through eight, making it irrelevant for evaluating a high school. A graduation rate was not reported in the available data, so a parent cannot use that standard metric either. Program information, such as Advanced Placement courses, dual credit with a college, or career and technical education pathways, was also absent from the public record. A family considering this school will want to ask directly about academic outcomes: college-going rates, ACT or SAT participation, and what postsecondary options students typically pursue.
No recent district-level changes – construction, leadership turnover, or program shifts – were found in the public sources searched, so the district appears to have been operating without major disruption in the last several years.
Absarokee High School fits a family looking for a very small, rural high school in a tight-knit community with an agricultural and mining identity. The setting offers proximity to outdoor recreation in the Beartooth Mountains and Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. But the public academic metrics that parents commonly rely on are simply not present for this school, and the available comparison data does not meaningfully assess high school performance. Anyone evaluating this school will need to gather information directly from the school office.
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