Original Research by School Decision on New England 9
New England Public School District #9 is a small, rural North Dakota district serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It operates two open schools, New England Elementary School and New England High School, and has two virtual schools listed as future additions, one at the elementary level and one at the high school level. The enrollment is modest, with roughly even distribution across grade bands and a slight concentration in the middle grades. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small numbers of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a few students identifying as Hispanic, Asian, Black, or two or more races. The district did not report free or reduced-price lunch data, special education counts, or English learner counts, so the economic and special-population picture is incomplete.
On state testing, North Dakota administered the A-PLUS assessment in the most recent year, and because the district is small, proficiency results are reported as ranges rather than precise figures. This is common for low-enrollment districts and reflects privacy protections, not a lack of testing. Participation rates were generally strong across grades and subjects. Math results show real variation. Fourth and sixth graders landed in a moderate to strong range, while third, fifth, seventh, and eighth graders finished in a lower band. ELA results were more consistently modest across all tested grades, with most grades sitting in a range that a parent may want to look into further with the school. Science was tested in fourth and eighth grades, and both landed in a lower range. Because this is the first year of the A-PLUS assessment with new cut scores, the state flags that trend comparisons against prior years are not reliable, so these results should be read as a baseline rather than a trajectory.
The district made a substantial capital investment in construction during the 2021-2022 fiscal year, publicly reported through federal education data sources. For a district of this size, that level of facilities spending suggests a real commitment to upgrading the physical school environment, which can matter for day-to-day student experience even when test results are still finding their footing.
Housing in the area sits above the North Dakota state benchmark, with a typical home value in the low $300,000 range compared with a state figure closer to the mid $200,000s. Rental data is limited to the Dickinson area, where rents run near the low $1,200s and have dipped slightly year over year. The estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is higher than average local rent, which means buyers face a steeper housing cost than renters. Affordability, measured as price-to-income ratio against national figures, comes in below the national mark, suggesting that local incomes relative to home prices are more favorable than in many parts of the country.
What was missing from the data is worth naming. No graduation rate was provided. No free or reduced-price lunch rate, special education rate, or English learner rate was reported. No course access, staffing, attendance, or discipline data was available. No locale brief for the town was provided, so the community context is thin. No county-level comparison set was included, so the district cannot be positioned against its neighbors here. A parent weighing this district should ask the school directly about graduation outcomes, post-secondary pathways, and support services, since those pieces are not visible in the available data.
For a family already in or drawn to this part of North Dakota, New England Public School District #9 offers a small, cohesive setting where students move through a single building pathway from early grades through high school. The planned virtual schools signal an interest in expanding access. The academic results from the first A-PLUS testing cycle are mixed, with math showing brighter spots in certain grades and ELA and science sitting lower across the board. The recent construction investment points to attention being paid to the learning environment. Whether that translates into stronger outcomes in coming years is something the next round of testing, once comparability is restored, will help answer.
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