Trego's Mountain Ear

The link to find the school rankings for Montana is: https://www.schooldigger.com/go/MT/schoolrank.aspx

It shows me, at Trego, the challenges of getting a team of top teachers together.  When I took Colorado’s Vocational Education class, I walked away with this phrase written on the blackboard of my mind: “If the student hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.”  In the past 40 years, I’ve encountered some teachers who accept that judgemental phrase – and more who attempt to explain why it’s wrong. 

I can accept our rating as a one star school – though why our higher percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches puts us behind our neighboring one star Fortine is beyond me.  I figure that, with the teaching staff we have now, the future is bright – regardless of who pays for lunch.

After all, Belt High School, with 98 students and a third of them on free and reduced lunches stands in first place among Montana’s high schools.  The impressive thing is that they were number six last year.  Gallatin County’s high schools continue to fill most of the top ten – but our neighboring Whitefish is listed as number 8 (it was 9th last year).

Libby scored 31st in this last round – down from 13th.  Lincoln County High School came in at 82nd out of 122 high schools.  This is up from 85th in the previous year – but there were 124 high schools listed then, so the improvement may just be a numerical artifact.  This is what the report says about our high school:

“Eureka Elementary School has shown steady improvement in its state-wide ranking, moving from 181 out of 356 in 2020-2021 to 87 out of 332 in 2022-2023, and earning a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger. This consistent progress, coupled with a relatively low student-to-teacher ratio of 13.4, suggests that the school is providing a quality educational experience for its 261 students. In contrast, Lincoln County High School has experienced a significant drop in its state-wide ranking, from 36 out of 114 in 2021-2022 to 85 out of 124 in 2022-2023, despite maintaining a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger.”

Troy High School scored 97th – a tremendous drop from the previous year’s 33rd place.

“Schooldigger calculates school rankings based on Montana State Tests Mathematics, Montana State Tests Reading, Montana State Tests Science test scores released by the Montana Office of Public Instruction.”

I’m looking forward to seeing Trego’s scores in 2027 – when they will reflect our changes and improvements in teaching.