Education Facts and Statistics

For the 2005-2006 academic year the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) reported that during Montana had 439 total school districts. Within these districts there were 451 elementary schools, 217 middle schools, and 172 high schools. Altogether there were 840 schools.

OPI also reported that during the 2005-2006 academic year the majority of Montana’s public schools, that is 39 percent or 327 of the 840 schools, have less than 50 students. During that same year 139 schools (17 percent) had 50-99 students, 163 schools (19 percent) had 100-249 students, 159 schools (19 percent) had 250-499 students, and 52 schools (6 percent) had over 500 students. Also during 2005-2006 Montana’s public schools had a total of 145,416 students enrolled, and 12,051 attended private schools or received home school educations. In 2004-2005 the US Department of Education reported that the student-teacher ratio was 14.3, whereas the national average was 15.8 students per teacher.

Montana's average SAT and ACT scores are consistently above the national average. For the SAT the high schore is 800. In 2005, 31 percent of Montana graduating seniors took the SAT. For the ACT the high schore is 36. In 2005, 57 percent of Montana graduating seniors took the ACT. The following are Montana's graduating seniors' average SAT and ACT scores compared to the national average:

Visit the Montana Office of Public Instruction for more information.