The top reported proficiency rate is 80% in Math. The lowest is 68% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Horn Middle School
Big Horn MiddleSchool sits in a small unincorporated community at the eastern base of the Bighorn Mountains, a short drive south of Sheridan. The area is primarily rural and residential, a mix of large working ranches along the mountain front, mid-size farms increasingly subdivided as land values climb, and upper-middle-class homes. There is no traditional downtown. A mercantile, a couple of bars, bed-and-breakfasts, and museums provide scattered commercial activity, while the K-12 school campus functions as the community's true gathering place. Big Horn has a distinctive polo heritage dating to the 1890s, with the Flying H Polo Club and Big Horn Equestrian Center drawing international players in summer. From autumn through spring, life centers on the school, especially during football season. Most residents commute to Sheridan for work and services, and the community is entirely car-dependent with no public transit.
The middle school serves grades six through eight and is part of Sheridan County School District #1. Enrollment is small for its grade band, with a cohort that holds remarkably steady across the three grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of Hispanic students, a few students of two or more races, and a single Asian student. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, and IEP and English-learner counts were not reported, so the picture of economic disadvantage and special populations is incomplete. A parent wanting to understand how the school supports lower-income students or students with disabilities may want to ask the school directly.
Academic performance is a clear strength. On Wyoming's WY-TOPP assessment, proficiency rates are strong across every tested grade and subject. Math proficiency rises steadily from sixth through eighth grade, with the majority of students scoring proficient or above at each level. English language arts follows an even sharper upward trajectory, with a substantial majority of sixth-graders proficient and that share climbing sharply by eighth grade. Science, tested only in eighth grade, also shows a solid majority proficient. Participation rates are essentially full across the board. When measured against other districts in Sheridan County, the school's overall proficiency sits in the top quartile, well above the county median. The data does not include multi-year trend comparisons, so it is hard to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or recently shifted. No nationally standardized academic context was provided beyond the state assessment results.
Because this is a middle school serving only grades six through eight, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. Course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance details were not provided in the data, so those dimensions of the school environment remain undescribed here rather than guessed.
The housing market in Big Horn's zip code is expensive relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well above what most Wyoming communities see, and the price-to-income ratio is steep, reflecting the area's desirability and the concentration of ranch and upper-middle-class residential property. Rising land prices have driven subdivision of some former agricultural parcels, though conservation easements have kept the largest mountain-front ranches intact. No rent data was available for this area, so the rental picture is unclear. Families considering a move here should expect a high-cost ownership market and limited local rental options.
We looked for recent district-level changes from Sheridan County School District #1 that would matter to parents and found little of lasting impact in publicly reported sources, so that material was left out rather than speculated on.
Big Horn Middle School reads as a small, high-performing rural school in an affluent, tight-knit community where the campus is the social anchor. It fits families who value that combination: strong academic outcomes, a stable peer group, and a setting where school life and community life overlap. The gaps in economic and special-population data are the main thing a prospective parent would want to fill in through direct conversation with the school.
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