The top reported proficiency rate is 51% in Science. The lowest is 0% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Margaret Leary School
Margaret Leary School serves about 360 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Butte, Montana. It is an elementary school within Butte Elem, the district covering the city’s primary grades. The school’s enrollment is overwhelmingly white, with a notable Hispanic minority; Black, Asian, and American Indian students each make up a small fraction of the student body. Nearly every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a level of economic need that is as high as it gets for a public school and a central fact about the community the school serves.
State assessment data for Margaret Leary presents an unusual picture. In math and English language arts, the testing results for the most recent year show no students scoring proficient or above. That is a stark number, and a parent evaluating the school would want to understand what is behind it. The school tested a group of students in both subjects, so the zero results are reported, not a data gap from no one being tested. The science assessment, which covers a narrower set of grades, tells a different story: roughly half of tested students reached proficiency. The science result is the school’s strongest measured academic area, and the only one where a clear majority of students are not scoring proficient. On the comparison set that positions Margaret Leary among districts in Silver Bow County, the school’s overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile, meaning its combined performance across tested subjects was lower than most of the other elementary districts in the county. Because Butte Elem is an elementary-only district, there is no high school graduation rate here.
Discipline, attendance, staffing, and course access data were not available in the profile, so a parent interested in school climate or teacher qualifications would need to ask the school directly. The same is true for special education and English learner populations; the data does not report how many students receive those services.
Butte shapes the school’s context. The city is a historic mining town, consolidated with Silver Bow County, with a working-class character rooted in its copper past. The Uptown Historic District, one of the largest National Historic Landmark districts in the country, gives the city an architectural density uncommon for a place its size. Montana Technological University provides an academic and employment anchor alongside mining operations, the hospital, and the city-county government. The Berkeley Pit, a massive former open-pit mine, sits adjacent to the Uptown district and is part of the nation’s largest Superfund site, an ongoing environmental reality that shapes community life. Interstates 90 and 15 meet in Butte, making the city a regional crossroads. Population has held steady as of the most recent census, with no major growth surge. The city’s housing market, measured in the school’s ZIP code, shows home values and rents that are moderately lower than the state average, consistent with a community that is economically mixed but tilted toward the working class.
Butte Elem’s district-level data showed no recent changes that would affect a parent’s decision in an immediate way. The school itself has not reported any program offerings or special pathways in the available information. A student at Margaret Leary will move through a standard elementary curriculum in a setting of very high economic need. The academic test results, particularly the zero-percent proficiency in math and reading for the tested grades, are a soft spot that a parent should explore thoroughly with the school. It is possible that the tested cohort was very small, or that an unusual circumstance affected results; the data alone does not explain why. The science result offers a point of reference that shows students can reach proficiency on a different assessment. Families considering Margaret Leary will want to understand the instructional approach, the support systems in place for students who are behind grade level, and what the school’s trajectory looks like from the principal’s perspective.
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