The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Math. The lowest is 42% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Dorothy Dodds Elementary School
Dorothy Dodds Elementary School serves kindergarten through fourth grade in Moorhead, a mid-sized city on the Minnesota side of the Red River, directly across from Fargo, North Dakota. The school is part of Moorhead Area Public Schools and opened in the fall of 2024 as a new building constructed to keep pace with the district’s steady enrollment growth. For families moving into the area or reassigned to a new attendance zone, this is a brand‑new facility from the ground up, not a renovation.
Enrollment is substantial for a K‑4 building, with classes that fill several sections at each grade level. The student body is diverse in race and ethnicity: around three‑fifths of students identify as white, roughly one‑sixth as Black, about one‑tenth as Hispanic, and smaller shares as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, or two or more races. Nearly half of the students qualify for free or reduced‑price lunch, a share that places the school in a middle range for economic need within the community.
State assessment results are available for the 2024‑25 school year, the school’s first year of operation. In math, the share of students meeting proficiency standards lands around the halfway mark, with third‑grade and fourth‑grade results close to each other. In English language arts, the proficiency rate is a bit lower, sitting at roughly two‑fifths for both grades tested. Compared with other elementary schools across Clay County, Dorothy Dodds Elementary’s overall proficiency across subjects is above the midpoint of the county’s schools. A single year of data offers no trend to examine yet, but the initial results suggest a solid starting point for a new school.
Because the school serves only the early elementary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data were not available in the source material. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its Title I status was not specified in the data.
The broader Moorhead context helps explain the district’s growth. Voters approved a substantial bond referendum in November 2024 that funds a new elementary school, an expansion of Moorhead High School, and district‑wide facility improvements. That measure, combined with the opening of Dorothy Dodds Elementary itself, signals that the district is actively managing rising enrollment. Housing values in Moorhead are close to statewide medians, and rents are moderate, making the area accessible for many families. The local economy is anchored by education—three college campuses—along with food processing and manufacturing.
For a parent reading this, Dorothy Dodds Elementary presents as a newly built school in a growing district with above‑average academic performance relative to other Clay County schools, serving a mixed‑income student population. The lower ELA proficiency rate is a data point a family may want to discuss with the school to understand how literacy instruction is structured in the early grades, especially since this is the first year of operation and practices may still be settling. The school’s location in south Moorhead places it within a short drive of the city’s downtown cultural sites and the nearby college campuses, with highway access to the broader Fargo‑Moorhead metro area.
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