Summary:
Zip code 83254, serving the Montpelier, Idaho community, contains exactly one middle school — Bear Lake Middle School — which enrolls 296 students in grades 6–8 and is part of the Bear Lake County District. As the only middle school in the area, Bear Lake automatically stands out, but it also earns attention for its strong performance: a 4-star SchoolDigger rating in 2023–2024 and a rank of 43rd out of 164 Idaho middle schools, placing it in the 74th percentile.
Bear Lake Middle School consistently outperforms the Idaho state average in every reported subject. In the most recent ISAT results, math proficiency was 54.0% versus the state's 43.1%, ELA proficiency was 62.1% versus 54.0%, and science proficiency was 61.9% — more than 19 points above the state's 42.6%. The school showed impressive growth in math, improving by 9 percentage points from 45% to 54% between 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, while ELA remained stable at around 62%. These results are especially noteworthy given that 44.6% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, yet the school still exceeds state averages across the board.
The school also reports a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate of 3.1%, well below the state's 13.8%. Bear Lake's percentile rank has climbed from 53rd in 2017–2018 to 74th in 2023–2024, even as the number of ranked schools grew from 100 to 164. With a student-teacher ratio of 18.2:1 and per-student spending of $9,276, the school offers a stable learning environment. One caveat: some figures come from different school years, so direct comparisons should be made cautiously, but the overall picture is of a well-performing school that serves its community effectively.
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