The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in Science. The lowest is 0% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Fairfield Elementary School
Fairfield Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the small agricultural town of Fairfield, Montana. The town is a compact trade center for the surrounding farming community, known as the Malting Barley Capital of the World, with Busch Agricultural Resources operating a major facility there. The school sits within a town that covers a very small area, so the campus is integrated into the town center rather than set apart. A notable point for families is that Fairfield Elementary has publicly reported earning a National Blue Ribbon School award, a national recognition program, in the past and again in 2025.
The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small number of students identifying as two or more races and a single student identified as Hispanic. Students of other racial or ethnic backgrounds are not represented in the enrollment data. A substantial share of students, about two out of five, qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives a sense of the economic mix of families the school serves. The school is not a charter school, and its Title I status is not listed in the available data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about any federally funded support programs.
State testing data for the 2023-24 school year requires careful reading because the school serves grades that do take the state assessments. In both math and English language arts, the reported proficiency rate for all students is at the lowest possible reported level. This is a soft spot in the academic profile, and a parent would want to discuss with the school how it addresses core skill instruction and what achievement trends look like over time. In science, which uses a separate state assessment, the picture is different. The school’s science proficiency rate is solid, with a majority of tested students scoring at the proficient level or above. The discrepancy between the math and English scores and the science score is striking and worth a direct conversation with school leadership about curriculum, assessment timing, and how the school identifies and supports students who may be struggling in the foundational subjects.
Across the tested subjects and grades overall, the school’s proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Teton County. This means that, among the dozen districts in the county, Fairfield Elementary’s combined proficiency across tested areas is lower than most of its peers. The comparison is at the district level, since the school is the only elementary in its district, so this puts the school’s academic standing in local context clearly on the lower end.
The town of Fairfield itself has experienced slow, steady population growth. Recent years have brought significant challenges tied to drought. The Greenfield Irrigation District has had to shut off water from Gibson Dam earlier than usual, some homeowners’ wells have gone dry, and the town has imposed water limits. This is the dominant story in the town’s current development picture, and it may affect daily life for families. Housing values, based on the data available, sit slightly below the state benchmark but above the national average, reflecting a mix of rural affordability and the broader pressures of Montana’s housing market.
For a family considering Fairfield Elementary, the core takeaway is that this is a small, rural school with a stark academic profile. Students generally perform well in science, but math and English scores are very low compared to the county, which may point to areas where the school is working to improve. The community is close-knit and agriculturally rooted, with a compact, walkable town center and a school that has earned national recognition in the past. The water infrastructure challenges in the town are a real factor in the local quality of life, and the academic data suggests that parents should be prepared to engage actively with the school around student progress in reading and math.
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