The reported proficiency rate for Science is 0%.
Original Research by School Decision on Jackson School
Jackson School sits in the remote Big Hole Valley of southwestern Montana, serving the unincorporated ranching and recreation community of Jackson, a place with a population of 36 according to the most recent federal census. The school is the only campus in the Jackson Elem district and educates children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. For high school, students travel a considerable distance northwest to Beaverhead County High School in Dillon.
The school itself is extraordinarily small, with a total enrollment that registers in the single digits, having two students. Those two students are in second and fourth grades, and both are white. The school is not a charter school. Data on whether students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners was not reported, so it is not possible to describe the share of students in those categories. The school’s type and its Title I status were also not specified in available records.
Because the enrollment is so small, state testing results are largely suppressed. For math and English language arts, the state suppressed the proficiency results to protect student privacy, which is standard practice when very few students are tested. That means there is no clear academic performance picture from those assessments. A science assessment was administered, but no students from the school were tested, and the reported proficiency rate was zero. Given the circumstances, this offers no meaningful read on the school’s academic program. The school has no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate. No program offerings were reported, and the neighbor comparison was not applicable because the cohort was too small to draw any position relative to other districts in Beaverhead County.
The community context is plain. Jackson is an unincorporated outpost in a wide intermountain valley. The local economy is built on multi-generational beef cattle ranching and hay harvesting, with a small tourism layer centered on the Big Hole River, nearby ski areas, and the Continental Divide Trail. A cluster of businesses—the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge, the Bunkhouse Hotel, and a custom western hat company—serve residents and passing cyclists. There is no downtown, no sidewalk grid, no public transit. The post office and fire department are the public infrastructure. The school is the local elementary option, but there is no campus beyond that level within the community. No evidence of recent growth, new housing, or district-level changes was found. The district itself has no parent-relevant changes to report.
For a family considering this school, the picture is one of extreme rural scale. The school exists to serve a tiny population in a valley where the nearest town with a high school is a long drive away. The academic data provides no basis to assess instructional quality. A parent would need to ask the school directly about curriculum, instruction, and student experience. What is clear is that this setting fits a family seeking deep isolation, a ranching lifestyle, and a school where the peer group is vanishingly small, not a family looking for a broad academic program, comparative test data, or a typical school community.
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