Enrollment
107
Montana · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Wilsall, MT
Shields Valley Elementary
Federal NCES profile for Shields Valley Elementary, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 36/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 300093201024
👥 S:T ratio 57
🌟 Gifted program 30
🎓 Counselors 57
📋 Attendance 0
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Shields Valley Elementary earns 36/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes near the Montana median.
- 36
- Resource Index · Typical
- 10.7:1
- students per teacher
- 107
- students enrolled
Shields Valley Elementary has class sizes near the Montana median. Computed live against every Montana school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Shields Valley Elem · Montana
NCES ID 300093201024 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
10.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
10.7:1
vs 11.8:1 Montana avg
-9% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Shields Valley Elementary compares with Montana and U.S. medians
What stands out at Shields Valley Elementary
Scale and staffing sit near the state mainstream
Shields Valley Elementary 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
Shields Valley Elementary's 42.1% 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.
Shields Valley Elementary is a mid-sized combined-grade school in Wilsall, Montana, enrolling 107 students.
Class sizes run a bit leaner than typical: 10.7:1 puts it in the smaller third of Montana schools by student-teacher ratio.
With 107 students, its enrollment sits close to the Montana median campus size.
Its Resource Investment Index lands in the lower third of 826 scored Montana schools.
Its student body is predominantly White (95% of enrollment) (diversity index 9/100).
Counselor coverage is strong, about 214 students per counselor, inside the American School Counselor Association's recommended 250:1.
Chronic absenteeism is elevated: 42.1% of students missed 10% or more of school days (2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection).
The surrounding Shields Valley Elem spends $14,820 per pupil, 25% below the Montana average, a leaner-resourced district than most.
Its district, Shields Valley Elem, also runs Shields Valley 7-8 (32 students).
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 Shields Valley Elementary compares
Shields Valley Elementary on the metrics families compare, against Montana and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Montana | Montana avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 10.7:1 | ▼ 9% | 11.8:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Enrollment | 107 | top 45% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
10.7:1
Leaner classes than 85% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
107
Bigger than 11% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Staffing depth
10.7:1
students per teacher
- 9% below state mean
Top 37% in Montana - lower ratio than 63% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
42.1%
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
$14,820
per pupil, district-wide
- below Montana avg of $19,859
Somewhat below the U.S. average per-pupil spend; funding constraints may affect programs, facilities, and staffing.
Support staff
Counselors0.5 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
0
in-school suspensions + 0 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 95.3%
Hispanic or Latino 2.8%
Two or More 1.9%
Largest group: White at 95.3% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 9.1/100
Simpson diversity index - at 9.1, Shields Valley Elementary is less mixed than the Montana school average of 23.6.
Programs
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Shields Valley Elem, which includes Shields Valley Elementary.
$14,820
Per student
-25%
vs Montana
Avg $19,859
-16%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 47.8%
State 40.0%
Federal 12.2%
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 Shields Valley Elementary Compares to District-Mates
| School | Enrollment | Economic Profile | Student-Teacher Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shields Valley 7-8 | Smaller | No free-lunch data | Higher S:T ratio |
Comparisons are relative to Shields Valley Elementary's own figures; each column derives from NCES Common Core of Data.
Other Schools in This District
- Enrollment
- 32
- Students per teacher
- 16:1
- Resource Index
- 54/100
Similar other 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.
Similar enrollment (~107 students)
Similar student-teacher ratio (~10.7:1)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Shields Valley Elementary's federal record.
- Compare Shields Valley Elementary against another school. Compare schools
- Shields Valley Elem's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
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 Shields Valley Elementary
How many students attend Shields Valley Elementary?
Shields Valley Elementary has 107 students enrolled. It is a public school in Wilsall, MT.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Shields Valley Elementary?
The student-teacher ratio at Shields Valley Elementary is 10.7:1, which is 9% lower than the Montana average of 11.8:1 and 32% lower than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Shields Valley Elementary?
The largest demographic group at Shields Valley Elementary is White at 95.3% of enrollment, in Wilsall, MT.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Shields Valley Elementary?
Shields Valley Elementary has a Resource Investment Index of 36/100 (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).
What other schools are in Shields Valley Elem?
Besides Shields Valley Elementary, Shields Valley Elem also operates Shields Valley 7-8 (32 students). See the Shields Valley Elem district page for the complete list.
Related tools
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.