High Schools in Blackfoot District

Blackfoot District is home to three high schools serving roughly 1,410 students in grades 7–12, and the district ranks 69th out of 101 Idaho districts with a 2-star rating. Blackfoot High School is the flagship, enrolling 83% of district high school students (1,170 in grades 9–12); Blackfoot School District Online Junior/Senior School serves 138 students in grades 7–12; and Independence Alternative High School serves 102 students in grades 7–12.

Blackfoot High School is the only school with a recent state ranking: 76th out of 122 Idaho high schools (38th percentile), improving from the 30th percentile in 2022–2023. It has the district's best attendance (7.1% chronic absenteeism) and spends $8,165 per student, yet only 17.6% of its students are proficient in math — a dramatic gap from the state's 43.1%. ELA (43.5%) and science (38.0%) proficiency are closer to state averages but still below. Independence Alternative High School faces far greater challenges: 57.84% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, chronic absenteeism is 30.7%, and historical rankings were in the 3rd percentile with a 0-star rating — despite spending $12,278 per student and having the smallest class sizes (12.9 ratio). The online school has a 26.4 student-to-teacher ratio, and its only reported ELA proficiency score was 16.2%, far below district (42.4%) and state (54.0%) averages.

Chronic absenteeism is dramatically uneven across the district, and the identical 82.5% graduation rate reported for all three schools is almost certainly a data artifact, making graduation comparisons impossible. Economic disadvantage tracks with academic challenges, as Independence Alternative High School combines the highest poverty rate with the lowest historical performance. Blackfoot High School's rank is improving but remains below average, and math instruction stands out as the most urgent academic concern. The online school offers the least data but raises serious questions about support and engagement given its low proficiency and high student-to-teacher ratio.