Original Research by School Decision on New Salem-almont 49
New Salem-Almont 49 is a small rural district in Morton County, North Dakota, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across two schools: Prairie View Elementary School and New Salem-Almont High School. The district draws primarily from the New Salem area, with housing values that sit well below both the state and national benchmarks. A typical home in the district's main zip code costs noticeably less than the statewide figure, and values have been climbing at a faster annual pace than the state overall, which suggests a modest but real demand for housing in the area. Rental data is thin, limited to a nearby community outside the district's core, so renters should expect to investigate the local market directly.
The student body is small for a district covering all grade levels, and it is overwhelmingly white. A handful of students identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, and a few come from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. The district did not report free-or-reduced-price-lunch counts, special education rates, or English learner figures, so families who want a sense of the economic and linguistic mix of the classrooms will need to ask the schools directly. Those gaps in the data make it harder to gauge the full picture of student need from what is publicly available.
On state testing, New Salem-Almont administered the ND A-PLUS assessment in the most recent school year. This is a new assessment with changed cut scores, so the results cannot be cleanly compared to prior years. The proficiency data is reported in bands rather than exact figures, which limits precision but still gives a general read. In math, most grade levels land in a middling range, with third, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades showing roughly a third to just under half of students meeting proficiency. Fourth grade stands out as the strongest math grade, landing in a higher band. Sixth grade is the weakest, with a smaller share of students reaching proficiency. In English language arts, third grade starts strong, with more than half of students likely proficient, then dips in fourth and fifth grades. Sixth and seventh grades recover to a moderate band, while eighth grade drops to the lowest range across both subjects. Science results, reported only for fourth and eighth grades, sit in a moderate band similar to several math grades. Participation rates were generally solid across grades and subjects.
A parent reading these results should keep two things in mind. The assessment change means no trend is available, so there is no way to tell from this data whether scores are improving or declining over time. And the reported bands, while useful for a rough placement, do not substitute for a conversation with school staff about how individual grades and student groups are progressing.
The district brief turned up little on recent referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax changes. Available results were limited to basic profile, enrollment, and fiscal data. This does not mean nothing is happening locally, only that the public record we accessed did not surface parent-relevant changes worth reporting. Families interested in the district's strategic direction or facilities plans should check with the district office directly.
What the data does make clear is that New Salem-Almont is a small, homogenous, rural district where housing is relatively affordable and where academic results are mixed. Early-grade reading is a relative bright spot, and fourth-grade math is a strength. The middle grades, particularly sixth and eighth, show softer results, and a parent with a child entering those years may want to look into this further with the school. No graduation rate, course access, staffing, discipline, or attendance data was available, so the high school experience in particular is hard to characterize from what we have. The district's size means students likely know most of their classmates and teachers, but it also means program breadth is probably limited. Families considering New Salem-Almont should weigh the close-knit environment and low cost of living against the need to ask direct questions about academic support, course offerings, and post-secondary pathways.
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