Culdesac School

Teachers and parentss alike: avoid Culdesac School! It is one of the most anti-academic, anti-teacher schools around.

Culdesac is a white-majority public school in a rural, impoverished white-majority town (Culdesac, Idaho) surrounded by the Nez Perce Reservation. The school spends approximately $20,000 per student, a fortune by Idaho standards (average around $9500) and gets little academic achievement in return.

Culdesac School test scores tell the story. The Idaho Standards Assessment Test (ISAT) results for school year 2016-17 were listed on the "Continuous Improvement Plan" at Culdesac's website. The scores are appalling: MATHEMATICS, Grades 7-10: 24 percent proficient, 62 percent Level 1. Note: "Level 1" means Below Basic. The ISAT levels are: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, Advanced. Only Proficient and Advanced meet Idaho standards for proficiency. Grades 3-6: 14 percent proficient, 48 percent Level 1. ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS, Grades 7-10: 38 percent proficient, 21 percent Level 1. Grades 3-6: 14 percent proficient, 47 Level 1. The proficiency in ELA in two of the elementary grades was ZERO. The proficiency in MATHEMATICS in two of the elementary grades was ZERO. In the previous school year (2015-16), the proficiency in MATHEMATICS in two of the secondary grades was ZERO.

The only academic ray of light at Culdesac was SCIENCE. The 2016-17 Science ISAT scores were PHENOMENAL (only Grades 5, 7, 10 are tested in science on the ISAT): SCIENCE, Grade 5: 80 percent proficient. Grade 7: 40 percent proficient. BIOLOGY, Grade 10: 67 percent proficient. Also, nearly HALF of the SCIENCE ISAT scores in Grades 7 and 10 were "Advanced". The Grades 7 and 10 class average ISAT SCIENCE scores were STATISTICALLY EQUAL TO THE STATEWIDE AVERAGES.

And what did the Culdesac School Administration do in response to the crashing Math & English scores and the soaring Science scores? THEY FIRED THE SCIENCE TEACHER.

"Fired" means: in Spring 2017 they forced her to resign by threatening her with probation and with reducing her position to part time. Why did they do this? They did this 24 hours after the science teacher showed a film about EVOLUTION in her science classes. Read more about it in the local newspaper:
https://lmtribune.com/northwest/ex-teacher-files-tort-claim-against-culdesac-school/article_bc4f24b2-3dfa-516c-a14f-9d5a5a02828f.html

More recently, Culdesac School did it again: they fired the science teacher (who had replaced the previous science teacher they fired in 2017) for suspicious reasons. Like the previous teacher, the current teacher was in her third year and thus was entitled by law to be evaluated solely for job performance. The school has repeatedly violated the state statutes governing teacher personnel management.

The replacement teacher for the 2020-21 school year is NOT CERTIFIED TO TEACH HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE.

Culdesac School was recently listed by the Idaho State Department of Education as one of the worst-performing schools in the state. Read about it:
https://www.idahoednews.org/news/state-identifies-lowest-performing-public-schools/

In short, Culdesac School is indeed a dead end, for students and teachers alike. Whether you are a parent or a teacher, just keep going on US 95, to nearby Craigmont or Lapwai. Both towns have schools with much better academic reputations.