Fall reading scores are up statewide, continuing a four-year trend of progress.
Nearly 60% of Idaho’s students in kindergarten through third grade are reading at grade level or higher — but plenty of schools and districts are outpacing the state average.
To celebrate their successes, we’ve created lists of the top-performing districts, charters and schools statewide.
Take a look below, and see if your local school made the cut. You can also mine through the full lists of scores for districts here and for schools here, or check out the full dataset here.
A note on methodology
Before you look through the lists, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
In an attempt to compare apples to apples as much as possible, we’ve grouped the highest performers into the following categories:
- Traditional schools
- Charter, magnet and nontraditional schools
- Traditional districts
- Large traditional districts
Even so, the comparisons are not completely fair for a number of reasons:
- In smaller schools and districts, it can be easier to achieve high proficiency rates than in large schools/districts because data more easily skews high or low based on the performance of a relative few.
- The lists don’t account for demographic differences, such as a student body’s affluence, or other such factors that might impact a school’s test results.
- Some data has been redacted by the state so not all districts and schools are represented.
See how your school did
About 86,000 Idaho students took the Idaho Reading Indicator, which measures reading ability and progress, this fall. For a breakdown of scores by districts and charters, go here. For a breakdown of scores by schools, go here.
Top performers: Traditional schools
All of the top-performing elementary schools are in the Boise or West Ada school districts.
| Elementary (District) | % of K-3 students reading at grade level or higher | # of test takers |
| Highlands (Boise) | 89.3 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Adams (Boise) | 87.5 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Hillsdale (West Ada) | 87.4 | 470 |
| Collister (Boise) | 86.7 | 128 |
| Longfellow (Boise) | 86.4 | 125 |
| Hidden Springs (Boise) | 85.8 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Riverside (Boise) | 84.8 | 165 |
| Washington (Boise) | 84.4 | 147 |
| Paramount (West Ada) | 84.1 | 283 |
| Dallas Harris (Boise) | 83.3 | 228 |
Top performers: Charter, magnet and nontraditional schools
Seven of these schools are located in the Treasure Valley.
| School (Location or district) | % of K-3 students reading at grade level or higher | # of test takers |
| Compass Public Charter (Meridian) | 87.6 | 403 |
| North Idaho STEM Charter Academy (Rathdrum) | 86.1 | 208 |
| Galileo STEM Academy (West Ada) | 85.7 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| North Star Charter (Eagle) | 85.5 | 325 |
| Victory Charter (Nampa) | 82.7 | 110 |
| Gem Prep: Online | 82.7 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Sorensen Magnet of the Arts (Coeur d’Alene) | 82.3 | 198 |
| Rolling Hills Public Charter (Boise) | 81 | 79 |
| Pioneer of the Arts (West Ada) | 80.8 | 447 |
| Christine Donnell of the Arts (West Ada) | 78.5 | 303 |
Top performers: Traditional districts
Most of these districts are small and rural.
| District | % of K-3 students reading at grade level or higher | # of test takers |
| Nez Perce | 80.9 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Garden Valley | 78.8 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Kamiah | 75.2 | 105 |
| McCall-Donnelly | 74.2 | 349 |
| West Ada | 71.9 | 9,484 |
| Grace | 71.5 | 151 |
| Troy | 70.8 | 106 |
| Midvale | 70.6 | Redacted due to low numbers |
| Moscow | 69.6 | 593 |
| Melba | 69.4 | 206 |
Largest traditional districts
Of the state’s ten largest districts, these five had higher IRI scores than the state average.
| District | % of K-3 students reading at grade level or higher | # of test takers |
| West Ada | 71.9 | 9,484 |
| Boise | 66.4 | 5,326 |
| Coeur d’Alene | 63.8 | 2,592 |
| Bonneville | 62.8 | 3,598 |
| Pocatello | 61.4 | 2,975 |
Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report.
