Original Research by School Decision on Yellowstone 14
Yellowstone 14 is a small rural district in McKenzie County, North Dakota, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates two schools: East Fairview Elementary School and Yellowstone Virtual Academy. The district sits along the western edge of the state, near the Montana border, in a region shaped by the Bakken oil economy. The community includes the Cartwright area, and housing here runs close to the statewide benchmark for North Dakota, with recent appreciation reflecting the broader energy-driven growth of McKenzie County. Home values have been climbing at a pace roughly matching the state average, which itself has outpaced national appreciation. For families looking to buy, the price-to-income ratio sits below the national figure, meaning housing here is more attainable relative to earnings than in much of the country, though mortgage rates remain elevated.
The district is very small, with an enrollment that spreads across all grade levels in modest single-grade cohorts. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller representation across American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Black, and multiracial students. We looked for free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education rates, and English learner counts, but those figures were not reported, so there is no clear picture of economic disadvantage or special population needs from the available data. A parent may want to ask the district directly about these supports.
On academics, the state reported proficiency ranges for fourth grade under the new ND A-PLUS assessment. Because this is a new assessment with changed cut scores, trend comparisons to prior years are not possible. Math proficiency fell in a range that spans from about half of tested students up to roughly two-thirds. English language arts covered a similarly wide range, from around four in ten students to nearly seven in ten. Science results came in lower, ranging from roughly three in ten to just under six in ten. These ranges are wide, and with a small district and modest participation, a single grade's results can swing noticeably from year to year. The participation rate was reported at a level well below full participation, which further limits how much weight to place on these numbers as a portrait of the district as a whole. Science proficiency was the weakest of the three subjects reported, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how science instruction is structured across the early grades.
No graduation rate applies here because the district does not serve high school grades. Students presumably transition to a neighboring district or high school for ninth grade and beyond, though the data does not specify which one. No state testing results are available for grades other than fourth, which limits the picture of academic performance across the full PK-8 span. A parent would be well served by asking the district for a fuller set of assessment results across all tested grades.
The district includes a virtual academy alongside its elementary school, which suggests some capacity for remote or flexible learning. Beyond that, no program details, course access information, staffing data, discipline data, or attendance figures were available. We looked for the district's strategic priorities and recent parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum updates, or property tax shifts, but found only directory and financial records. Nothing in the available data points to major recent changes, though the absence of news coverage for a district this small may simply reflect limited reporting rather than stability.
For families considering this area, Yellowstone 14 offers a very small, rural educational setting with the intimacy that comes from tiny grade cohorts and a single physical school building, plus a virtual option. The academic data that exists is thin and hard to interpret with confidence given the new assessment framework and low participation. The housing market is more affordable than the national picture but has been appreciating. The Bakken-region economy brings both energy-sector employment opportunities and the population fluctuations that go with them. Families drawn to a quiet, small-community environment may find this district fits, provided they are comfortable asking the district directly for the information the public data does not yet capture.
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