The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Belt High School
Belt High School is the single secondary school for Belt, Montana, a very small rural town that once boomed as a coal mining center and now functions as a quiet agricultural service community where many residents commute to Great Falls for work. The school serves grades nine through twelve and is part of the Belt H S district, which covers the K‑12 public schools for the town and the surrounding area. Enrollment is small for a high school, with roughly a hundred students across the four grade levels. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small Hispanic population and a very small share of students identifying as two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced‑price meals, a marker that the community includes a meaningful share of lower‑income households.
State testing results present an unusual picture. The data reported shows zero percent proficiency in math, English language arts, and science, but those tests are for grades three through eight, not for high school. Belt High School serves only grades nine through twelve, and the state testing program for those grades is not reflected in this data set. As a result, the reported proficiency rates and the comparison that places the school in the bottom quartile among Cascade County districts are not applicable to the actual high school academic program. A parent or resident looking at this data should understand that it tells them nothing about how Belt High School students perform on the assessments that matter for their grade level. The graduation rate, another standard metric for high schools, is also absent from the data. That gap is not explained by the school’s grade band; the information simply was not available. A parent may want to inquire directly with the school or district about high school assessment results and graduation outcomes.
No program offerings, such as Advanced Placement, dual credit, career and technical education, or extracurriculars, are listed in the available data. Likewise, information on discipline, attendance, staffing ratios, and civil rights outcomes is missing, so the profile of day‑to‑day student experience and support is incomplete.
The town of Belt itself is tiny, with a long history of population decline since its early‑1900s peak. Its economy is limited; the school district, a craft brewery, and cattle ranching are the main local employers, and many adults commute to Great Falls, about a twenty‑minute drive southwest. The town’s historic brick and stone commercial core is preserved, and the Belt Museum and Sluice Boxes State Park nearby provide modest civic and recreational anchors. There is no public transit, and housing values are high relative to the local income level, which is typical of much of Montana but may be a stretch for households without a Great Falls salary.
Belt High School operates in a setting where the community is small, rural, and stable in its decline. For a family already living in Belt or considering a move to this part of central Montana, the school’s academic record at the high school level is undocumented in the public data available here, making it essential to seek direct information from the district. The school is the only high school option in town, and given the distance to Great Falls, it is the default for local students. The lack of reported high school testing and graduation data is the most important takeaway; it is not that the school is failing or succeeding on those measures, but that the measures themselves are not present in this record.
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