The top reported proficiency rate is 4% in Science. The lowest is 2% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Davis-ramoth School
Davis-Ramoth School sits in Selawik, a small Iñupiat village at the mouth of the Selawik River where it empties into Selawik Lake, roughly seventy miles southeast of Kotzebue. There are no roads connecting Selawik to the outside. Residents and visitors arrive by plane or boat, and within the village itself travel happens on boardwalks, by ATV, boat, and snow machine. The community spreads across three riverbanks linked by bridges. Subsistence fishing and hunting are central to life here: whitefish, sheefish, caribou, moose, ducks, ptarmigan, and berries. The largest employers are the school, the city government, the Native Village of Selawik tribal council, the Maniilaq Association health clinic, and three grocery stores. Seasonal work at the Red Dog Mine and Bureau of Land Management firefighting supplements household incomes. Publicly reported data identifies Selawik as a Denali Commission Distressed Community, and its population is currently declining. Despite that designation, recent public investment has brought a new K-12 school building, a borough's-largest Maniilaq clinic, and a housing project with modern homes.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade in a single building. It was recently rebuilt and described in publicly reported sources as a much larger, modern facility compared to what it replaced. Enrollment is modest, distributed fairly evenly across the grade levels. Virtually every student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals. The student body is overwhelmingly Alaska Native, reflecting the surrounding Iñupiat community. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available in the provided records, so those population figures cannot be characterized here.
State assessment results from the most recent year are available for English language arts and science, and both show very low proficiency. In English language arts, only a small handful of tested students reached the proficient level. Science results were similarly low, with just a single tested student meeting the proficiency bar. Math proficiency results were suppressed by the state for reporting purposes, so no math proficiency figure can be described. Participation rates across the three subjects were generally solid, with most eligible students sitting for the exams, though not every student participated. Average scale scores were not reported for any subject. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from the provided data whether these results represent a change from prior years.
A parent reading these results should understand the full context. In a village where the median age is young and a large share of residents are under eighteen, the school is the central institution. The challenges reflected in the proficiency data are real and a parent may want to look into them further with the school, asking about what supports are in place and how the district is working to strengthen instruction. At the same time, the data available here is thin. There is no graduation rate, no course access information, no staffing data, no discipline data, and no program offerings list in the provided records. A parent trying to assess the upper grades would have little to go on from these sources alone and would need to ask the school directly about what high school coursework, vocational pathways, or dual-credit options exist.
The Northwest Arctic Borough School District, which operates Davis-Ramoth, did not yield parent-relevant recent changes in the provided district brief beyond basic profile and enrollment information. No strategic priorities or program announcements were available. This leaves a picture that is heavy on community and light on academic detail. What is clear is that Davis-Ramoth is a small, overwhelmingly Alaska Native, pre-K-through-12 school in an isolated Iñupiat village with a subsistence-based economy and declining population, but with recent public investment in its school and clinic infrastructure. The academic data that exists points to serious proficiency shortfalls, and the rest of what a parent would want to know requires going directly to the school.
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