Summary:
Helper, Utah, has two public schools serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade: Sally Mauro School for PK–5 and Helper Middle for grades 6–8. Together, they enroll 492 students and are part of Carbon District; no high school is included in the supplied list. Families should note that students will need to attend a school outside this list for high school.
Helper Middle is the stronger overall performer. It ranks in the 65th statewide percentile, up from the 55th percentile three years earlier, and performs above district and state averages in English Language Arts across grades 6–8. Science is an especially strong subject, led by 73.2% proficiency in grade 6. Its main weakness is mathematics: proficiency falls from 56.1% in grade 6 to 35.3% in grade 7 and 26.3% in grade 8. Sally Mauro School ranks in the 41st percentile after recovering from the 25th percentile the previous year. Its strongest result is grade 5 science, at 56.2%, above both district and state averages. Its mathematics results generally compare favorably with the district, while grade 5 English Language Arts is a notable weakness at 35.5%.
Attendance is an important difference between the schools. Chronic absenteeism is 34.4% at Sally Mauro School, substantially higher than the 24.2% rate at Helper Middle and the 23.8% state rate. Helper Middle also reports a lower student-teacher ratio, 15.9 compared with 18.3. Both schools have nearly identical free/reduced-price lunch participation, at about 48%, so their differences in attendance, staffing, and subject performance are useful factors for families to consider. The most important priorities are improving attendance and grade 5 literacy at Sally Mauro, while strengthening grade 7–8 mathematics at Helper Middle.
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