The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Vaughn School
Vaughn School is a small rural elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the unincorporated community of Vaughn, Montana, about ten miles west of Great Falls along U.S. Highway 89. The school is the only building in the Vaughn Elem district, and its enrollment of roughly a hundred students makes it a notably intimate setting. The community itself is agricultural and residential, with farms and ranchland surrounding a sparse settlement pattern; there is no downtown or commercial district to speak of, and families rely on the nearby city of Great Falls for most amenities and employment.
Academically, the picture is unusually incomplete. State testing data for math and English language arts shows that no students were assessed in those subjects, and the reported proficiency rate is at the floor. The science assessment was taken by a small group of students, but the results were suppressed for privacy reasons. What this means for a parent is that there is no conventional test-based measure of how well Vaughn School’s students are performing relative to state standards. The school’s overall proficiency index, based on the limited data available, places it in the bottom quartile among districts in Cascade County, though the absence of test participation makes that comparison difficult to interpret. A parent would want to ask the school directly about its assessment practices and how student progress is tracked.
The student body is almost entirely from low-income households: every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The school is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, American Indian, and two-or-more-races students, and a single Asian student. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent should inquire about those support services directly. The grade-by-grade enrollment shows a small pre-kindergarten program, a kindergarten class of moderate size for this setting, and then the largest numbers in first and second grades, with slightly smaller cohorts in the upper elementary grades. The sixth grade is the smallest of the tested grades.
Housing in the Vaughn area is modestly priced relative to the rest of the state; home values sit near the national median. The community has seen steady but slow population growth over recent decades, and the built environment remains low-density, with no major new subdivisions or development projects publicly reported. The area offers natural amenities such as the Sun River, fishing access sites, and nearby wildlife refuges and state parks, but there is no public library or transit system documented. The school itself is the primary civic institution in Vaughn.
Vaughn School is a fit for families who want a very small, locally rooted elementary school in a rural setting, who are comfortable with a high-poverty student population, and who do not rely heavily on state test scores to gauge school quality. The lack of assessment data means that a parent will need to form their own picture of academic rigor through conversations with the school and by observing classroom practices. The district did not have any recent publicly reported changes or initiatives, so the school appears to be operating in a stable, low-turnover mode. For families seeking a larger elementary with more program offerings or a track record of tested achievement, Vaughn’s sparse data will be a limitation. For those who value a close-knit, one-school community in a quiet agricultural area, it offers that in a straightforward, unadorned form.
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