High school (grades 9-12) · Highwood, MT

Highwood High School

Federal NCES profile for Highwood High School, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 44/100.

2024-25 NCES dataHigh school (grades 9-12)NCES 301407000437
0/100100/10044/100
👥 S:T ratio
50
🌟 Gifted program
30
🎓 Counselors
85
📋 Attendance
10
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →

The verdict

Highwood High School earns 44/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes near the Montana median.

#1 of 3
public schools in Highwood · Resource Index
44
Resource Index · Typical
12.5:1
students per teacher
25
students enrolled

Highwood High School has class sizes near the Montana median. Computed live against every Montana school reporting to NCES.

By Resource Investment Index, Highwood High School ranks #1 of 3 public schools in Highwood, MT.

School address

Enrollment

25

Montana · 2024-25 NCES data

Teachers (FTE)

2.0

Federal CCD staff survey

Students per teacher

12.5:1

vs 11.8:1 Montana avg

+6% vs state

Student-teacher ratio in context

How Highwood High School compares with Montana and U.S. medians

Slightly above state median
0:135:112.5:1

Source: NCES Common Core of Data As of 2024-25 federal staff survey Total enrollment ÷ full-time-equivalent classroom teachers

What stands out at Highwood High School

Scale and staffing sit near the state mainstream

Highwood High School is neither an extreme outlier in enrollment nor in student-teacher ratio among Montana schools. Its profile therefore turns on the other dimensions rather than on scale alone: economic need, counselor coverage, program access, attendance, and district finance. This middle placement is useful because it prevents the campus from being mislabeled as unusually large, small, crowded, or teacher-dense when the federal comparison does not support that claim.

Attendance is the dominant support signal

Highwood High School's 36.0% chronic-absence rate is more consequential than a generic staffing label: at least one quarter of students missed 10% or more of school days in the 2021-22 collection. That level can affect instruction, counseling demand, and continuity even when other reported resources look ordinary. The dataset records the scale of absence but not its causes, so it should prompt a current-year question rather than a conclusion about school management.

Highwood High School is a mid-sized high school in Highwood, Montana, enrolling 25 students.

At 12.5:1, its student-teacher ratio sits close to the Montana median, within a few percentage points of the 11.8:1 state norm, neither notably crowded nor notably small.

Enrollment of 25 puts it in the smaller third of Montana schools by headcount.

Its Resource Investment Index sits near the middle of the pack among 826 scored Montana schools.

Its student body is predominantly White (96% of enrollment) (diversity index 8/100).

No Advanced Placement courses are reported for this campus in the federal data.

Counselor coverage is strong, about 74 students per counselor, inside the American School Counselor Association's recommended 250:1.

Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 36.0% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).

Highwood K-12 also operates Highwood School (62 students) and Highwood Middle School (19 students) alongside Highwood High School.

Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25

How Highwood High School compares

Highwood High School on the metrics families compare, against Montana and U.S. means.

Metric This school vs Montana Montana avg U.S. avg
Students per teacher 12.5:1 ▲ 6% 11.8:1 15.7:1
Enrollment 25 top 75% - -

Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25

12.5:1
Leaner classes than 71% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
25
Bigger than 3% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.

Equity indicators (what these measure)

Staffing depth
12.5:1
students per teacher - 6% above state mean
Top 54% in Montana - lower ratio than 46% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
36.0%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
At or above 20%, the commonly used threshold for "high" chronic absenteeism, signaling significant barriers to regular attendance.
Funding equity
$17,778
per pupil, district-wide - below Montana avg of $19,859
Close to the U.S. public-school average per-pupil spend.
Support staff
Counselors0.3 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
0
in-school suspensions + 1 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 4.0 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.

Student demographics

White 96.0%
Hispanic or Latino 4.0%

Largest group: White at 96.0% of enrollment.

Student-body diversity index 7.7/100

Simpson diversity index - at 7.7, Highwood High School is less mixed than the Montana school average of 23.6.

Programs

AP program Not offered

Funding & spending

District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Highwood K-12, which includes Highwood High School.

$17,778
Per student
-10%
vs Montana
Avg $19,859
+1%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 42.3%
State 49.2%
Federal 8.5%

Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2022-23 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.

How Highwood High School Compares to District-Mates

School Enrollment Economic Profile Student-Teacher Ratio
Highwood School Larger No free-lunch data Similar S:T ratio
Highwood Middle School Similar size No free-lunch data Lower S:T ratio

Comparisons are relative to Highwood High School's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data.

Other Schools in This District

Highwood K-12 · 2 sibling schools

View district profile

Similar high schools statewide

Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Montana, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.

Next steps

Verify locally before acting on Highwood High School's federal record.

Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.

Frequently asked questions about Highwood High School

How many students attend Highwood High School?

Highwood High School has 25 students enrolled. It is a high school in Highwood, MT.

What is the student-teacher ratio at Highwood High School?

The student-teacher ratio at Highwood High School is 12.5:1, which is 6% higher than the Montana average of 11.8:1 and 20% lower than the national average of 15.7:1.

What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Highwood High School?

The largest demographic group at Highwood High School is White at 96.0% of enrollment, in Highwood, MT.

What is the Resource Investment Index for Highwood High School?

Highwood High School has a Resource Investment Index of 44/100 (typical reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, counselor availability, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).

How does Highwood High School rank among public schools in Highwood?

By Resource Investment Index, Highwood High School ranks #1 of 3 public schools in Highwood, MT. This compares federal resource and staffing data among local peers; it is not a test-score or academic ranking.

What other schools are in Highwood K-12?

Besides Highwood High School, Highwood K-12 also operates Highwood School (62 students) and Highwood Middle School (19 students). See the Highwood K-12 district page for the complete list.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) CCD + Public School Universe (2024-25), CRDC (2021-22), F-33 District Finance Survey (FY 2022-23) · 2024-25 Data as of the 2024-25 school year. Coverage from U.S. Department of Education NCES Common Core of Data. Varies by entity type; administrative districts and certain charter networks may report only a subset of fields.

All federal data sources used on this page

Full source list and how we compute each figure: methodology page.

Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.