The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in Science. The lowest is 0% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Central Elementary
Central Elementary sits in Sidney, a small city that functions as a regional retail and service hub for northeastern Montana and western North Dakota. The local economy depends on farming, ranching, healthcare, and oil and gas extraction tied to the Bakken Formation. Sidney’s population has followed a boom-and-bust pattern linked to oil exploration, growing through the early 2000s and then shrinking modestly in recent years. The closure of the Holly Sugar beet factory in 2023 was a notable economic loss. Housing values in Sidney’s ZIP code are below the state benchmark, and monthly rents are lower than an estimated mortgage payment on a median-priced home, making ownership relatively more expensive than renting in the current market.
Central Elementary serves grades three through five. It is one of four public schools in the district, operating alongside Westside Elementary (grades K through two), a junior high, and a high school. This means a child who starts at Westside will move to Central for the upper elementary years, then to junior high and high school, with each school at a separate location around town.
The student body is predominantly white. Hispanic students make up the largest minority group. There are also small numbers of students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, or two or more races. Just under half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a common measure of economic need. Data on the share of students with an individualized education program (IEP) and the share designated as English learners was not available; a parent may want to ask the school about special education staffing and English language support directly.
State testing results present a mixed picture. In science, more than two of every five students scored at the proficient level or above on the Montana Science Assessment. That is an area of relative strength for the school. In math and English language arts, however, the reported proficiency rate was zero percent. A closer look shows that zero students were recorded as tested for those subjects, not that every student who took the test fell short. The data field for tested count in both math and ELA lists a count of zero, which is more consistent with missing or suppressed test records than with actual results. This is an unusual data gap. It may reflect a reporting issue at the state or school level, or it may indicate that the school did not administer the Smarter Balanced assessments in those subjects that year for reasons that are not explained in the available information. A parent should verify directly with Central Elementary or the Sidney district office what assessment data is available for those subjects and what the school’s actual performance looks like.
Looking at the school’s overall proficiency index across the subjects and grades tested, Central Elementary places in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Richland County. That comparison is drawn from a small cohort of three districts that had proficiency data to analyze, so the ranking is based on a thin slice of the county. Still, it suggests that, whatever the explanation for the missing math and ELA results, the available science score alone does not pull the school into the middle of the pack among its county peers.
No information was available on discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, course access, or staffing ratios. The district brief turned up little of lasting impact in terms of recent changes to operations, programming, or leadership, so those appear to be absent rather than consequential.
Central Elementary is a neighborhood school for the upper elementary grades in a small city shaped by resource extraction and agriculture. Its student population has a notable share of families with economic need. The science results are solid, but the gap in math and reading data is significant enough that a prospective parent would want to get a clear picture of academic performance from the school directly before making a decision.
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