Prairie Elementary ranked in top 10 schools in Idaho
A quality education can be tricky to
quantify, but the State Department of Education has done just that —
ranking Idaho’s schools from best to worst.
The data provided tells many stories
about Idaho schools — purportedly, where the best and worst schools
are. The latest ranking also highlights the most notable gains and
slides since 2018. And it shows a stark difference among Idaho’s top
and bottom schools.
The data that’s missing tells a story
too — like geographical, socioeconomic, demographic, and social factors
that aren’t accounted for, and that perhaps help drive the divide
between the top schools and the bottom.
In Idaho, where the
constitution mandates the Legislature “establish and maintain
a general, uniform, and thorough system of public, free common
schools”, the rankings list counters that ideal with reality: inequity
seems to persist in public education.
The first-ever rankings list was
created in 2018 when the federal government required states to identify
the lowest-performing schools. The idea was that, once identified, the
State Department could help lift those struggling schools by providing
additional funding and support.
But the rankings lists, meant to be
compiled every three years, were pushed back in 2020-2021 due to the
pandemic. The newest rankings are from the 2021-2022 school year and
were just released.
Prairie Elementary School with a score of 94 was tied for 10th place among all schools in Idaho.
Prairie Jr./Senior High had a score of 59 and is ranked 212th out of over 600 schools listed in the rankings.
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