The top reported proficiency rate is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Colstrip High School
Colstrip High School serves students in ninth through twelfth grade in the small southeastern Montana town that grew up around coal mining and electricity generation. The school is a single high school within the Colstrip H S district, and its enrollment is small. The student body reflects the racial makeup of the community: about half the students identify as white, roughly a third are American Indian or Alaska Native, and the rest are Hispanic, Asian, or identify with two or more races. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which aligns with what one would expect in a town whose economy depends on the volatile coal industry.
The typical academic metrics a parent might look for are largely absent from this profile. State assessment data is reported only for grades three through eight in Montana, and since Colstrip High School serves only high school grades, there are no test results here that directly describe its students’ performance. An overall proficiency index from the district appears in a comparison that places Colstrip relative to other districts in Rosebud County, and that index lands in the lowest quarter. The parent should note that this index draws on assessments taken in earlier grades at other schools within the district, not from the high school itself, so it offers an indirect read at best. A four-year graduation rate was not available in the data, and we found no information about college-going rates or dual-enrollment offerings. Whether Colstrip High School provides Advanced Placement, career and technical education courses, or other postsecondary pathways is not documented here, so anyone considering the school would want to ask the administration directly.
Colstrip is a town whose character and prospects are tightly bound to the Rosebud Mine and the Colstrip Steam Electric Station. The community was established as a company town for the railroad and boomed during the plant’s construction in the 1970s and 1980s. Today the population has declined, and the closure of two of the four generating units has introduced a long period of economic uncertainty. Housing values in the Colstrip area are well below the state and national benchmarks, making homeownership comparatively affordable for a Montana town, but the local economy is narrow, with government and the energy facilities as the primary employers. The town itself offers considerable green space—dozens of parks and a man-made lake with a walking trail—along with a recreation center and a small museum housed in the original schoolhouse. There is no traditional downtown, and daily life centers on the school, the parks, and the industrial campus.
For a family weighing Colstrip High School, the most important considerations are probably qualitative: the size and familiarity of a small school, the close-knit atmosphere of a town that knows its students, and the genuine uncertainty about the community’s long-term economic future. The absence of published test scores and graduation rates makes it harder to judge academic outcomes from afar. The student population is racially diverse, with a significant Native American presence, and the district’s proficiency metric from earlier grades suggests room for improvement in core academic skills, though that measure may not capture what the high school itself achieves. A parent looking at this school will want to visit, speak with the principal and teachers, and ask specifically about academic programs, support for students who may be behind, and what pathways—college, trade, workforce—graduates typically follow. The data provided does not supply those answers, only the context in which they matter.
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