Best Public Schools in Zip Code 83704

Zip code 83704 in Boise, Idaho is home to 9 schools serving 3,749 students, including 5 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 3 high schools across the Boise Independent District, Joint School District No. 2, and the Cardinal Academy Incorporated charter district. The standout is Summerwind STEM Academy, ranked 14th of 346 Idaho elementary schools (96th percentile, 5 stars), with 75.3% math and 77.4% ELA proficiency — far above the state averages of 43.1% and 54%. At the opposite extreme, Morley Nelson Elementary ranks 344th of 346, with 16.3% math proficiency and 35% chronic absenteeism.

Valley View Elementary is the most impressive success story: nearly 97% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, yet it outperforms the state in every subject and earns 4 stars, proving high poverty does not have to mean low performance. Horizon Elementary, with similar poverty (98.3%), ranks in the bottom 7%. Mountain View Elementary sits in the middle, earning 3 stars with scores near the state average. Among secondary schools, Fairmont Junior High is in decline, dropping to the 6th percentile with math proficiency falling from 34.6% to 24.8%. Capital Senior High, the largest school at 1,170 students, faces a math crisis at 23.3% proficiency despite spending the most per student ($11,072).

Chronic absenteeism is the clearest pattern: most Boise district schools in 83704 report rates between 29% and 35%, more than double the state average of 13.8%, while Summerwind STEM Academy posts a rate of just 11.1%. Notably, it also achieves the best results while spending the least ($6,805 per student). Cardinal Academy and Ada County Juvenile Center lack comparable rankings due to their small, alternative nature — Cardinal's absenteeism is 75.7%. For parents, the takeaway is that school performance in 83704 is driven less by poverty than by attendance and instructional practices, and the biggest opportunities for improvement lie in addressing absenteeism and intervening at feeder schools like Fairmont Junior High before students reach Capital Senior High.