Hawthorne Elementary School

Hawthorne Elementary School is a PK-6 public school in Idaho Falls, ID, serving 383 students as part of the Idaho Falls District. The school serves a high-need population: 67.1% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 2024-25, up from 56.2% two years earlier. Historically, Hawthorne has been a low-performing school, ranking between the 6th and 10th percentile from 2021-22 through 2024-25. In the most recent 2025-26 school year, however, it jumped to the 35th percentile (2 stars), a meaningful improvement.

One distinctive pattern at Hawthorne is that reading is a relative weakness. In 2025-26, math proficiency was 39.2%, close to the district average of 40.6%, while ELA proficiency was 41.1% — far below the district's 51.5% and the state's 54.0%. In most Idaho schools, reading runs ahead of math, but at Hawthorne the gap is nearly nonexistent. Test scores also swing dramatically by grade level. Fourth-grade math proficiency was just 19.6%, compared to 42.5% in 3rd grade and an impressive 59.0% in 6th grade, which topped both district and state averages. Notably, 6th-grade ELA (56.4%) also beat the district and state.

Chronic absenteeism is a major concern. At 24.6%, Hawthorne's rate is the highest among nearby schools — above the district's 18.9% and nearly double the state's 13.8%. Nearby schools like Sunnyside Elementary and Longfellow Elementary have far lower absenteeism and higher achievement. Hawthorne also spends more per student than some neighbors, yet outcomes lag. Still, the latest year brought genuine gains: math rose 4.1 points and ELA rose 8.9 points even as poverty increased. The priorities are clear: improve literacy, reduce chronic absenteeism, and investigate the 4th-grade math collapse.