The top reported proficiency rate is 80% in English language arts. The lowest is 67% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Kelly Elementary
Kelly Elementary sits in one of the most distinctive settings of any public school in Wyoming. The community of Kelly is a small, dispersed residential settlement along the Gros Ventre River on the eastern side of the Jackson Hole valley, lying within the boundary of Grand Teton National Park. The town originated as a farming and ranching settlement in the late nineteenth century, and it once had a mercantile, hotel, blacksmith, flour mill, and dance hall. A catastrophic flood and later a fire destroyed most of the historic structures, and Kelly never returned to its earlier prosperity. Today the built environment is essentially residential, with a post office and the elementary school serving as the only real civic nodes. There is no walkable commercial main street, no public library in town, and no local transit. The nearest library, transit, and commercial services are in Jackson, roughly twelve to fifteen miles to the southwest.
The school itself is very small, serving kindergarten through fifth grade with a total enrollment in the high thirties. Class sizes by grade vary considerably from year to year given the tiny numbers. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students identifying as Asian or two or more races. No free-or-reduced-price lunch data, individualized education program data, or English learner data were available, so the socioeconomic and special-population picture is incomplete from what was provided. A parent wanting to understand the economic mix of families here or the level of specialized support services would need to ask the school directly.
State testing results from the most recent year are available for grades three through five under the WY-TOPP assessment, and participation was full across every tested grade and subject. The results are strong. Third-grade math proficiency fell in the highest reported band, and third-grade English language arts proficiency was high as well, with a solid average scale score. Fourth-grade math proficiency was lower than the other grades and subjects, the one relative soft spot in the data, though it still represented a majority of the small group tested. English language arts in fourth and fifth grade landed in a high reported band, as did fifth-grade math and fourth-grade science. Because the tested groups are so small, a single student's result shifts the proficiency picture meaningfully, and the state reports some of these as ranges rather than exact figures for that reason. The overall read is that students at Kelly are performing well on state assessments, with the fourth-grade math result the one area a parent might want to look into further with the school.
No multi-year trend data were available, so it is not possible to say from the provided information whether these results are stable over time or reflect a particular cohort. The comparison fact-set, which positions this school relative to districts in Teton County, could not produce proficiency index, graduation, or absenteeism comparisons. The graduation rate does not apply because Kelly is an elementary school, and chronic absenteeism data were not reported. The county-level proficiency comparison was not calculated because the cohort was too small. These gaps reflect the limited comparison pool and the school's grade band rather than any judgment about performance.
Kelly Elementary is part of Teton County School District #1, which covers the broader Jackson Hole area. After fifth grade, students from Kelly travel to Jackson for middle school and high school. The district has been contending with a workforce housing crisis that has affected teacher retention. In November 2024, voters approved a housing bond to fund workforce housing for district employees on district-owned land, to be repaid through property taxes over an extended period. The district has lost a meaningful portion of its workforce in recent years because of Jackson Hole's housing costs, and this initiative is aimed at stabilizing staffing, which directly affects classroom continuity for families across the district, including in Kelly.
Kelly itself is experiencing population growth despite its location inside a national park, where federal land ownership and park regulations constrain development. No specific new housing developments were identified, but the population has increased measurably since the last census. The community has no identified major employers beyond the national park itself and the school district. For families considering Kelly Elementary, the school offers a small, rural, close-knit environment with strong academic results and a setting unlike almost anywhere else in the country, inside Grand Teton National Park. The trade-offs are geographic isolation, limited local services, and a transition to schools in Jackson as children move into middle school.
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