Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 83263

Zip code 83263 in Preston, Idaho is served by two elementary schools — Pioneer Elementary School and Oakwood Elementary School — which together enroll 1,049 students in grades PK–5 under the Preston Joint District. Rather than competing schools, they form a coordinated elementary pathway: Pioneer serves the early grades (PK–2) with 533 students, while Oakwood serves grades 3–5 with 516 students. This arrangement explains why testing data is only available for Oakwood, since state standardized testing typically begins in 3rd grade.

Oakwood Elementary School is the clear academic standout, posting math proficiency of 48.4% — above both the district (39.0%) and state (43.1%) — and 5th grade science proficiency of 58%, a full 14 points above the state average. Its performance is notable given that 54.46% of Oakwood students qualify for free/reduced lunch, a higher poverty rate than Pioneer's 48.78%. Oakwood's ELA results are more uneven: 3rd grade ELA proficiency (41.9%) trails the state by 6.6 points, but by 5th grade the school surges to 64.4%, outpacing the state by 9.2 points. The school holds a 3-star SchoolDigger rating, though all-grades math proficiency dipped from 55.0% to 48.4% year over year, which may reflect changing cohorts rather than programmatic decline.

The most pressing concern in the zip code is chronic absenteeism. Both schools exceed the district average of 8.8% dramatically: Pioneer Elementary School is at 15.0% and Oakwood is at 13.8%, meaning roughly 1 in 7 students is chronically absent. Attendance challenges at Pioneer are particularly important because early-grade absences can carry forward into Oakwood. The two schools share nearly identical student-teacher ratios (21.3 at Pioneer vs. 21.5 at Oakwood) and sit adjacent to one another on South 4th East. However, per-student spending differs notably: Oakwood spends $7,282 per student compared to $6,402 at Pioneer, a 13.7% gap that may reflect targeted resources for tested grades or the higher concentration of at-risk students.