The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in English language arts. The lowest is 48% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Sagebrush Elementary
Sagebrush Elementary sits on Hillpond Drive in Sheridan, Wyoming, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Sheridan County School District #2. It is a traditional public school, not a charter or magnet, and it draws from a community that functions as the economic hub for a three-county region stretching across north-central Wyoming into southern Montana.
Sheridan itself has a more diversified economy than many Wyoming towns. Instead of leaning entirely on natural resource extraction or tourism, the local base spreads across government, healthcare, education, real estate, mining, and financial services, with a growing manufacturing sector. The historic downtown along Main Street carries a western character with shops, restaurants, and arts venues, while the town sits in Goose Creek Valley at the base of the Bighorn Mountains. Publicly reported sources note that Sheridan has attracted steady population growth and continues to draw residents drawn to mountain proximity and quality-of-life amenities.
On state assessments through the WY-TOPP test, Sagebrush posts strong results in math and English language arts. Third-grade math proficiency is quite high, and while fifth-grade math settles lower, it remains solid. In ELA, third and fifth grade both show high proficiency, with a dip in fourth grade. The overall pattern across tested grades and subjects places Sagebrush in the top quartile relative to districts in Sheridan County, which is a three-district set. Participation was full across every tested grade and subject. One soft spot stands out: fourth-grade science proficiency falls below half, with fewer than half of tested students reaching proficient. This is the weakest result in the school's profile, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how science instruction is structured across the intermediate grades.
The school serves roughly equal-sized grade cohorts from kindergarten through fifth grade. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives Sagebrush a mixed-income population rather than a heavily concentrated low-income one. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic presence and very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations could not be characterized here. The same gap applies to chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, and Title I status: none were reported in the data provided.
Because Sagebrush is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the grade range does not include the high school years where that measure applies. No chronic absenteeism figure was available for comparison either. Civil rights data was not included in the payload. The district brief for Sheridan County School District #2 did not surface any parent-relevant changes of lasting impact from recent district decisions, so there is nothing to report on that front.
Housing in the school's zip code sits above both the state and national benchmarks, reflecting Sheridan's relative affordability challenge. The typical home value runs higher than the Wyoming statewide figure, and the price-to-income ratio indicates that buying a home here requires a larger share of income than in many parts of the country. Rent data was not available for this area. The broader economic environment shows a national unemployment rate that has held steady in a narrow range, and mortgage rates have been elevated, which compounds the housing cost picture for families considering a move into the attendance area.
What emerges is a profile of a solidly performing elementary school in a small but regionally important Wyoming town. Academic results in core subjects are generally strong and place the school near the top among its county peers, with science in fourth grade as the clear area to watch. The community offers a mix of outdoor access, a walkable historic core, and a diversified local economy that is less dependent on a single industry than much of the state. For families weighing Sagebrush, the academic foundation looks steady, the peer environment is mixed-income and largely but not exclusively white, and the housing market demands more than the state average to buy in.
See more original research from School Decision →