Original Research by School Decision on Maddock 9
Maddock Public School District is a very small rural district in Benson County, North Dakota, serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across two schools, Maddock Elementary and Maddock High. The enrollment is tiny, with only a handful of students per grade level. This is the kind of district where nearly every child is known by name, and class sizes are naturally intimate. The student body is predominantly white, with small representation from American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students.
The district sits in a housing market that is quite affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. Homes in the area cost well below what typical North Dakota or nationwide buyers would expect. The district draws from areas around Harvey and Leeds, and recent home values have softened somewhat, reflecting a modest decline. For families looking at the cost of living, the price-to-income ratio suggests housing here is within reach for local wage earners, and estimated monthly mortgage costs sit low relative to much of the country. Rental data was not available.
Academically, the most recent state assessments come from North Dakota's A-PLUS test in math and English language arts, and from the prior year's NDSA in science. A parent should know that the state recently changed its assessment and cut scores, so these results are not directly comparable to earlier years and trend data is not available. Proficiency is reported in ranges rather than precise figures, which is common for districts with very small tested groups and reflects privacy protections.
In English language arts, the district shows moderate to solid proficiency ranges across the elementary and middle grades assessed. Third and fifth grade results land in a mid-to-upper band, and seventh grade sits slightly lower but still in a reasonable range. This is a relative bright spot for the district. In math, the picture is more mixed. Third grade proficiency falls in a moderate range, but fifth and seventh grade results dip into a lower band. A parent may want to look into how the district supports math instruction in the upper elementary and middle grades. Science, assessed under the prior year's test, showed a moderate proficiency range for the single grade reported.
Participation rates across all tested subjects and grades were reported but sat below full participation, which a parent may want to ask about. In a district this small, even one or two absences on test day can shift results substantially, so the numbers should be read with that context in mind.
Several data points that parents often look for were not available. Free or reduced-price lunch counts were not reported, so the economic need profile of the student body is not clear from the data. Special education and English learner rates were also missing. No graduation rate was provided, though the district does serve high school grades. No civil rights data on discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance was included. Program offerings such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education, or dual credit were not listed. We looked for the district's strategic priorities or recent changes of lasting impact and found little, so we left that out rather than guess. A locale brief for the surrounding community was not available, and no neighbor comparison set was provided to position Maddock against nearby districts.
What the available picture does convey is a close-knit, very small rural district where English language arts results are the stronger academic signal and math results are softer, set against an affordable housing market in a quiet corner of Benson County. Families considering this district would benefit from asking the schools directly about math support, graduation outcomes, and what programs are available beyond the core curriculum, since those details did not appear in the data we received.
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