Peace Valley Charter School

Peace Valley Charter School is a small K–8 charter school in Boise, ID, serving 192 students on South Federal Way and operating as its own single-school district, Peace Valley Charter School Inc. The school ranks 194th out of 346 Idaho schools for 2025–2026, placing it in the 44th percentile with a 2-star rating. That position marks real progress: in just two years, the school has climbed from the 6th percentile and a 0-star rating (2023–2024) to just below the state median, one of the more encouraging trends in the dataset.

Academically, the school offers a mixed picture. Math is the clearest weakness, with only 25.5% of students proficient versus the state average of 43.1% — though that figure has more than doubled from 11.5% two years earlier. English Language Arts proficiency sits at 45.9%, below the state's 54.0%, but grade-level results show grades 5, 6, and 7 scoring at or above state averages. Science is a genuine bright spot: overall proficiency is 46.2% versus the state's 42.7%, and 8th graders post 58.3% proficiency compared to 42.9% statewide.

The school's biggest challenge is chronic absenteeism. At 33.8%, it is the highest among all nearby schools and more than double the state average of 13.8%, having never dropped below twice the state rate in five years. This likely helps explain why the school's math outcomes resemble lower-performing neighborhood schools like Jefferson Elementary School (28.2% math) and Garfield Elementary School (18.8% math), despite stronger reading and science results. Notably, two nearby high-poverty schools — Hawthorne Elementary School (55.9% math, 63.6% ELA) and Monroe Elementary School (54.4% math, 51.2% ELA) — outperform the school in core subjects, showing poverty alone does not explain the gap. With per-student spending of $7,081 (the lowest in the comparison group) and a 16.8 student-teacher ratio, the school achieves moderate outcomes with leaner resources. Improving attendance while building on its upper-grade ELA and science strengths would likely push the school to a solidly above-average position.