The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in Science. The lowest is 0% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hillcrest School
Hillcrest School is an elementary school in Butte, Montana, serving students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as part of the Butte Elem district. It is a conventional public school, not a charter or magnet school, and sits on the south side of the city on Continental Drive, in a historic mining town that is consolidated with Silver Bow County. Butte itself has a working-class, industrial character shaped by its copper mining past; the Uptown Historic District, a large National Historic Landmark, sits near the school. The broader community includes Montana Technological University, giving the city an academic presence alongside its mining heritage.
The school’s student body is large for an elementary school in its grade band, and the student population is predominantly white, with small numbers of students identifying as Hispanic, multiracial, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a substantial share and points to a community with a range of economic backgrounds. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the availability of special education and language support services.
State assessment results are available, but they are thin in a way that reflects the school’s grade span. Students in grades three through eight are tested in math and English language arts, but we see a zero-percent proficiency rate reported for both subjects in the 2023-24 school year, along with zero students tested. That likely indicates the school did not administer those particular tests to its tested grades or that the data was not reported in the standard way rather than that no student met proficiency. Science results are more straightforward: about half of the students tested met the proficiency standard on the Montana Science Assessment. When compared to other schools in Silver Bow County, Hillcrest’s overall proficiency across tested subjects fell in the bottom quartile among the handful of comparison entities. Because the county comparison set is small and the math and ELA testing situation is unclear, this is a soft snapshot rather than a definitive read.
No graduation rate applies, because the school ends at sixth grade. There is no data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or course access. The district brief turned up no recent changes or initiatives that affect day-to-day life for families, and the school itself does not appear to have published a strategic plan or program list that we could find. The housing market in the 59701 zip code shows home values and rents that are below the state average, making Butte a more affordable place to buy or rent relative to Montana’s larger cities. Monthly rent eats up about a fifth of the median household income, a manageable share by national standards. The mortgage rate environment in mid-2026, near historic norms, adds context for families weighing a purchase.
What Hillcrest School offers is a neighborhood elementary option in a community with a strong sense of place, where mining history and the Rocky Mountain setting are part of daily life. The school is large enough to organize children into grade-level groups across the elementary span. For families considering this school, the missing pieces—clear test participation data, special education and English learner counts, and any stated district priorities—mean a conversation with the school office would be worthwhile to understand how academic instruction and student support actually operate here. The science results are a concrete point of strength, but the wider academic picture remains incomplete based on what is publicly available.
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