Maxine Johnson Elementary

Maxine Johnson Elementary is a PK–4 school in Parma, ID, that serves 377 students from a largely working-class community, with 56.5% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch. The school earned a 4-star rating in 2025–2026, placing it 79th out of 346 Idaho elementary schools (77th percentile). It sits within the Parma District, which ranks 30th out of 101 Idaho districts (70th percentile) with a 4-star rating. Chronic absenteeism runs at 12.9%, slightly below the state rate of 13.8%, and the student-teacher ratio is 16.3.

Academically, Maxine Johnson is the strongest elementary school in its immediate region. Math proficiency reached 63.4% in 2025–2026, compared with the state average of 43.1%, while ELA proficiency hit 61.5% versus the state's 54.0%. Among 10 nearby schools, it ranks #1 in both subjects. The next closest is West Canyon Elementary School at 52.4% in math and 58.8% in ELA, while schools like Sacajawea Elementary School (19.2% math) and Notus Elementary School (25.9% math) trail dramatically despite being just 8–16 miles away. Fourth-grade results are particularly impressive—65.2% in math and 73.0% in ELA, with that ELA figure roughly 23 points above the state average and far ahead of every neighboring school. The one soft spot is 3rd-grade ELA at 47.2%, just below the state's 48.5%, which may point to early literacy work that the school successfully addresses by 4th grade.

What makes these results especially noteworthy is that Maxine Johnson achieves them with relatively modest spending (about $7,439 per student) and a higher-poverty student population than several neighboring schools that post much lower scores. The school also improved dramatically from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, jumping from a 3-star to a 4-star rating, with ELA climbing from 47.3% to 61.5% in a single year. Chronic absenteeism is lower than most nearby schools—12.9% compared with 27.7% at Notus Elementary School, 22.7% at Wilder Elementary School, and 22.2% at Purple Sage Elementary. The key questions for parents are whether the school can sustain its large one-year test-score jump and whether 3rd-grade ELA improves. If current trends hold, Maxine Johnson is positioning itself as one of the highest-performing elementary schools in southwest Idaho.