Original Research by School Decision on Glen Ullin 48
Glen Ullin 48 is a small rural public school district in North Dakota, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across two schools, Glen Ullin Elementary School and Glen Ullin High School. The district's enrollment is small, with a single class in most grades numbering in the single digits. This is the kind of setting where nearly every student is known by name across the staff, and where the school functions as a central institution of community life. The district draws primarily from the Glen Ullin area, with a small portion of its housing footprint extending toward New Salem and Beulah.
The student body is predominantly white, with a small representation of Hispanic, Black, Asian, multiracial, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch counts were not reported, so the economic profile of the student body is something a parent would need to ask the district about directly. The same is true for special education and English learner populations, where the data provided no figures.
On state assessments, Glen Ullin participates in North Dakota's A-PLUS testing in math and English language arts, and the earlier NDSA in science. The state recently changed both the assessment name and the proficiency cut scores for math, ELA, and science, which means this year's results are not cleanly comparable to prior years. With that caveat in mind, the current results show a mixed picture. In math, seventh grade proficiency landed in a moderate-to-strong band, while third grade sat in a middling range and fifth grade came in lower. In English language arts, third, fifth, and seventh grades all landed in a similar middling band. Science proficiency for fourth grade, tested under the prior NDSA assessment, fell in a moderate range. Participation rates held steady at the state's reported threshold. Given the small number of students tested in each grade, a single child's performance can move results noticeably, so a parent reading these ranges should treat them as a rough indicator rather than a precise measure. A parent may want to look into the district's approach to math instruction, particularly in the upper elementary grades, where the results were weakest.
No multi-year trend data was available that could be cleanly compared given the assessment changes, so it is hard to say whether performance is improving or declining over time. The district brief noted that a search for recent parent-relevant changes turned up little of lasting impact, with only basic demographic and profile data available for this small rural district.
Housing in the district is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. The district-weighted home value sits well below the North Dakota statewide figure and roughly half the national benchmark, driven largely by Glen Ullin's own zip code, which carries the most weight. Nearby New Salem and Beulah show higher home values but contribute only a small share to the district's housing profile. The price-to-income ratio sits below the national level, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is modest. Rent data was not available. For a family considering a move into the district, housing costs are likely to be a point in its favor.
Beyond the academic and housing data, there is a fair amount the provided record does not capture. No locale brief was available for the town of Glen Ullin itself, so details about local amenities, employers, commute patterns, and community character are absent from this account. No information on AP courses, career and technical education, dual-credit opportunities, extracurriculars, or specialized programs was provided, which limits the picture of what the academic pathway looks like for older students. No civil rights data on discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance was available. No neighbor comparison set was included, so it is not possible to position Glen Ullin against surrounding Morton County districts here.
What the data does support is a clear outline: a very small, rural, pre-K-through-12 district with affordable housing, a predominantly white student body, mixed state assessment results that are difficult to compare across years because of testing changes, and gaps in publicly reported information that a family would need to fill through direct conversation with the district. For parents drawn to a small-community setting where their child will be in a small cohort, Glen Ullin fits that profile. For those wanting a broad program menu or rich outcome data to evaluate, the available record is thin, and the district itself is the best source for the rest.
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