Best Public Schools in Wendell, ID

The three public schools in Wendell, Idaho—serving roughly 1,100 students in grades PK–12 through the Wendell District—are uniformly ranked in the bottom 5% of Idaho schools for 2025–2026, with the district itself ranking 97th out of 101 statewide. Wendell Elementary School serves grades PK–4 (429 students), Wendell Middle School serves grades 5–8 (350 students), and Wendell High School serves grades 9–12 (325 students). All three schools hold a 0-star rating and sit near the bottom percentile, indicating system-wide academic challenges rather than an isolated issue at any single campus.

The most dramatic story is at Wendell High School, which dropped from a 4-star, 74th-percentile ranking in 2023–2024 to a 0-star, 5th-percentile ranking by 2025–2026—despite having the district’s lowest chronic absenteeism (5.9%), the smallest class sizes (16.3:1), and the highest per-student spending ($9,310). Its math proficiency (14.8%) is actually the lowest in the district. Meanwhile, Wendell Elementary, despite the highest poverty rate (80% free/reduced lunch) and highest absenteeism (14.4%), posts the strongest math (24%) and ELA (36.3%) scores among the three schools—beating both the middle and high school. Wendell Middle School stands out for a startling one-year science collapse, falling from 28.5% to 13.3% proficiency while the state average held steady at 42.7%. Its math proficiency also varies sharply by grade, from 9.5% in 5th grade to 30.9% in 7th grade.

Across the district, poverty decreases as grade level rises—from 80% in elementary to 61% in high school—yet academic proficiency does not improve accordingly. Chronic absenteeism is identical at the elementary and middle schools (14.4%) but much lower at the high school (5.9%). Every school remains far below state averages in math, ELA, and science, with the widest gap in middle school science (nearly 30 points below the state). One rare bright spot is the high school’s graduation rate of 82.5%, which exactly matches the Idaho state average, though this success is tempered by very low test scores—suggesting students may be graduating without meeting academic proficiency benchmarks. Overall, Wendell’s schools present a picture of entrenched low performance, with the elementary school showing relative academic resilience and the high school’s past success now a distant anomaly.