East Elementary School

East Elementary School in Mountain Home, ID, is a PK–4 school serving 386 students as part of the Mountain Home District. The school currently ranks in the bottom fifth of Idaho elementary schools — 291st out of 346 schools, earning a 1-star rating and the 16th percentile. Over the past decade, East has typically scored between the 11th and 31st percentiles, with its best performance (48th percentile) coming during the unusual 2020–2021 testing window. It is not the lowest-ranked elementary school in the immediate area, but it clearly sits in the lower tier.

Academically, East's math performance is a relative bright spot. In 2025–2026, 39.2% of students were proficient in math — above the district average of 36.0% but below the state average of 43.1%. Meanwhile, ELA proficiency was 37.6%, below both the district (46.8%) and state (54.0%) averages. This makes East the weakest ELA performer in its local cluster, just below North Elementary at 37.9%. More concerning, 4th-grade ELA proficiency (35.4%) drops noticeably from 3rd grade (39.5%), suggesting students may be losing ground in literacy as they move up. Nearby Stephensen Elementary, located on Mountain Home Air Force Base, dramatically outperforms East with 71.1% math and 76.4% ELA proficiency.

East faces significant demographic challenges. The free/reduced-price lunch rate has climbed from 50.7% in 2022–2023 to 63.7% in 2024–2025 — nearly identical to West Elementary (63.9%) but far above Stephensen (23.1%). Chronic absenteeism, while improving from 30.9% to 22.0% over three years, still means roughly one in five students misses significant school — nearly double the state rate of 13.8%. The school's low-income student outcomes rank in the bottom 20th percentile statewide. On a positive note, math performance has remained stable, and the student-teacher ratio improved to 19.3. Richard McKenna Charter School - Montessori, just 0.21 miles away, outperforms East in both subjects with lower chronic absenteeism, showing that better outcomes are possible in the same community. Addressing poverty and attendance will likely be key to East's path forward.