Marion Elementary

The Marion Elementary school district in Montana consists of two schools: Marion School, an elementary school serving grades PK-6, and Marion 7-8, a middle school serving grades 7-8. While the elementary school struggles academically, with proficiency rates well below the state average, the middle school outperforms the elementary school, particularly in English Language Arts.

Both schools in the Marion Elementary district face significant challenges, with 100% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating very high levels of economic disadvantage among the student populations. Despite the high poverty levels, the middle school, Marion 7-8, has higher proficiency rates than the elementary school in both English Language Arts (44% vs. 26.47%) and Mathematics (12% vs. 14.71%). This suggests the middle school may be employing more effective instructional strategies or supports for students.

Interestingly, both schools have the same reported spending per student of $10,447 in 2018-2019, indicating that funding alone may not be the primary driver of the performance gap between the elementary and middle schools. The middle school also has a lower student-teacher ratio of 9 to 1, compared to 13.1 to 1 at the elementary school, which may contribute to its stronger academic performance.