White Pine Elementary School

White Pine Elementary School is a PK-6 school in Boise, ID, serving 555 students — the largest elementary school in its immediate comparison cluster within the Boise Independent District. The school earned a 4-star rating for 2025-2026 and ranked 64th out of 346 Idaho elementary schools, placing it in the 82nd percentile statewide. White Pine has maintained a 4-star rating every year since 2021-2022. Academically, math proficiency is 62.1% compared to 46.4% for the district and 43.1% for the state, while ELA proficiency is 63.1% versus 53.3% for the district and 54.0% for the state.

Compared with nearby schools, White Pine sits in an upper-middle tier: it outperforms Hawthorne Elementary School (math 55.9%; ELA 63.6%), Liberty Elementary School (math 55.0%; ELA 63.5%), and Owyhee Elementary School (math 40.4%; ELA 48.1%), while trailing top local performers like Adams Elementary School (math 77.4%; ELA 82.5%) and Dallas Harris Elementary School (math 73.8%; ELA 74.8%). This is notable because White Pine's student-teacher ratio is 18.2, among the highest in the area, and its free/reduced lunch rate of 29.55% places it in the middle of nearby schools. Yet its results are much closer to affluent neighbors like Riverside Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School than to higher-poverty neighboring schools.

White Pine's strong results have been consistent over time. The school rose from a 2-star rating in 2018-2019 to a steady 4-star rating since 2021-2022, and ELA proficiency improves from 61.9% in 3rd grade to 67.1% in 6th grade, indicating solid literacy growth. The school also spends a moderate $10,191 per student — less than several lower-performing nearby schools — and its chronic absenteeism rate of 17.0% is well below the district's 22.5%. While not the absolute top school in southeast Boise, White Pine's combination of strong academics, efficient use of resources, and improving attendance makes it a compelling option for families.