Best High Schools in Zip Code 83352

Zip code 83352 in Idaho is served by two very different high schools within the Shoshone Joint District: Shoshone High School, a traditional high school serving grades 9-12 with 143 students, and High Desert, a much smaller school serving grades 6-12 with just 23 students. While both schools report the same 82.5% graduation rate, they offer vastly different educational environments and serve distinct student populations.

Shoshone High School is the larger, more comprehensive option and the only school in the area with state ranking and test score data. It has shown meaningful improvement over time, rising from the 18th percentile in state rankings in 2012-2013 to the 58th percentile by 2016-2017, and improving from 1 star to 3 stars. However, its science proficiency on the ISAT exam was just 23.8%, well below the state average of 41.2%. The school serves a majority economically disadvantaged population, with 58% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, and maintains a student-teacher ratio of 13.1. High Desert, by contrast, has a much lower economic disadvantage rate at 34.8% but a strikingly high chronic absenteeism rate of 45.5% — more than triple Shoshone High School's 12.6% and well above the 13.8% state average.

High Desert also presents a counterintuitive spending picture: it spends $13,003 per student, more than Shoshone High School's $11,890, yet its student-teacher ratio of 29.1 is more than double Shoshone's 13.1. This suggests fixed overhead costs for a very small school rather than additional staffing. For parents, the key takeaway is that these two schools, despite sharing the same district, provide very different experiences. Shoshone High School offers a more traditional, academically visible path with a history of improvement, while High Desert appears to serve an alternative or credit-recovery population facing significant engagement challenges. Looking only at district-level metrics in the Shoshone Joint District would mask these substantial school-level differences.