Clarification on Last Front Page

Last week’s front page article reporting that Family Minded online had honored Cardwell School with Best Elementary School in Montana received a lot of attention. However, was it warranted?

As you’ll see below, there are several Letters to the Editor regarding the article. The Whitehall School also sent out letters to all the elementary parents showing their test scores were better than Cardwell’s. However, I feel the point was missed.

Last year the Screams Come True Haunted House I created was named best in Montana by Travel Pulse online. I had never heard of them before. I wasn’t even contacted before the article came out. Do I believe that SCT is the best in the state? Of course, I do! However, who knows what criteria they made that decision on? It was a puff piece that helped bring people to the event.

Same with Family Minded. Cardwell School wasn’t aware of their “award” until the article broke. Yes, test scores were part of the equation. But who knows what the other criteria were? In all honesty, their article was a puff piece that was picked up not only by The Ledger but several news channels and XL Country.

James Reiff makes several good points below in his letter. However, Family Minded did not base their test score report upon OPI data, but instead Niche.com.

“The stats were sourced from Niche.com, which uses U.S. Department of Education data. That said, we’ve noted in our story that the data we used is from a 2020 report due to the pandemic affecting school ratings. Either way, the stats for Cardwell school (65% proficiency in math and 85% proficiency in reading) are exactly the same for Niche’s 2023 report: https://www.niche.com/k12/cardwell-school-cardwell-mt,” said Jessie Fetterling, Director of Editorial Operations for Family Minded told the Ledger.

Congrats to both schools for having pride in themselves and their students. No school is a perfect match for everyone, regardless of test scores, teacher-t0-student ratio, location, and the like.