Paul Elementary School

Paul Elementary School serves 457 students in grades PK–5 in Paul, Idaho, a small agricultural community in the south-central part of the state, and is part of the Minidoka County Joint District. The school currently ranks in the 9th percentile statewide (316th out of 346 Idaho elementary schools), a steep drop from its 60th-percentile ranking and 3-star rating in 2017–18. This past year brought a sharp decline in math proficiency, falling from 35.5% to 25.7% — now below the district's 28.1% and well below the state's 43.1%.

Results vary notably by grade level. Fourth graders turned in strong performances — 37.3% in math and 43.3% in ELA, both above Minidoka County Joint District averages. Fifth grade, however, is a clear concern, with math at just 17.6% and science at 27.0% versus 44.0% statewide. These challenges are not simply a matter of demographics: Paul's poverty rate (54.3% free/reduced lunch) is lower than several nearby schools that outperform it. Dworshak Elementary, for example, serves a higher-poverty population (65.4%) with larger class sizes, yet achieves 45.4% math proficiency and ranks in the 50th percentile statewide.

Chronic absenteeism is also worth attention: 16.9% of students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, above both the district (14.5%) and state (13.8%) rates, and it has spiked as high as 30% in recent years. (Dworshak's rate is just 8.5%.) At the same time, Paul spends $6,657 per student — the lowest among all nearby elementary schools, which typically spend between $7,000 and $8,200 — although class sizes remain reasonable at 19.6:1. Rising absenteeism, tightening budgets, and sliding test scores present real headwinds, but the strong fourth-grade cohort shows the school's potential to reverse course.