Education Facts and Statistics

Updated: August 10, 2020

For the 2017-2018 academic year the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) reported that during Montana had 429 total school districts. Within these districts there were 435 elementary schools, 217 middle schools, and 171 high schools. Altogether there were 823 schools.

OPI also reported that during the 2017-2018 academic year the majority of Montana’s public schools, that is 39 percent or 320 of the 823 schools, have less than 50 students. During that same year 124 schools (15 percent) had 50-99 students, 165 schools (20 percent) had 100-249 students, 160 schools (19 percent) had 250-499 students, and 56 schools (7 percent) had over 500 students. Also during 2017-2018 Montana’s public schools had a total of 104,635 students enrolled, and 13,876 attended private schools or received home school educations. In 2012-2013 the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the student-teacher ratio was 13.9, whereas the national average was 16.2 students per teacher.

Montana's average SAT and ACT scores are consistently at the national average. The following are Montana's graduating seniors' average 2016 SAT and ACT scores compared to the national average:

Visit the Montana Office of Public Instruction for more information.

Source: Montana Office of Public Instruction, Facts About Montana Education 2019

Source: National Center for Education Statistics: Common Core Data of American Public Schools

Updated: August 10, 2020