The reported proficiency rate for Science is 0%.
Original Research by School Decision on Knees School
Knees School sits in Carter, a tiny unincorporated community in Chouteau County, Montana, where the 2020 census counted a population of 65. The economy here revolves around dryland farming, ranching, and rail transport, with a grain elevator facility as a key landmark. The town lies along the BNSF Railway line and U.S. Route 87, between Fort Benton to the northeast and Great Falls to the southwest. There is no downtown to speak of, no separate school campus as one might imagine in a larger place; the school itself is likely the most substantial civic presence. The Carter Ferry, a free service operated by the county that carries two passenger cars at a time across the Missouri River, is a notable feature that also serves as a state fishing and public access site.
Knees School serves preschool through eighth grade, drawing from this extremely small rural community and the surrounding area. Its total enrollment is very small, reflecting the scale of the population it serves. All enrolled students identify as white. Information on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, on students with disabilities, and on English learners was not reported.
This is a school where the grade band stops at eighth grade, so there is no graduation rate to report. State testing data for math and English language arts in grades three through eight was suppressed, meaning the number of students tested was too small to report a proficiency rate publicly. That result is typical for a school of this size, where the tested cohort is so small that state privacy guidelines prevent releasing the data. In science, no students scored at the proficient level, but again the tested count was zero, which may simply mean no students in the tested grades took that particular assessment. The overall proficiency picture is effectively unavailable, and any parent considering this school would want to speak directly with the school or district about how student progress is measured and communicated.
The school sits within the Knees Elem district, which contains just this one school. The district is so small that publicly reported information about any recent changes or strategic priorities was not found in the search conducted for this profile. Relative to other districts in Chouteau County, Knees School’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile, though only two of the county’s ten districts had enough data to be compared on this measure, so the comparison is quite limited.
A school of this size and in this setting is not for everyone. It matches a particular kind of family: one that values a rural, tight-knit educational environment where the school and community are essentially one and the same. The peer group is very small, the academic data is mostly unavailable due to suppression, and there is no high school on site, so families would need to plan ahead for where their child will attend ninth grade. For a family already living in or near Carter, this is the local school. For anyone coming from outside, the decision hinges on whether an extremely small, rural setting with limited available performance data fits what they are looking for in their child’s early and middle school years.
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