Original Research by School Decision on Scranton Elementary School
Scranton Elementary School is a small regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Scranton, North Dakota, part of the Scranton 33 district. The town itself sits in the southwestern corner of the state, a very small rural agricultural trade center with a coal mining past. Founded along the Milwaukee Road rail line and named after Scranton, Pennsylvania for its shared coal heritage, the community publicly describes itself as a rural agri-center built on friendly residents and active volunteers. The local economy is anchored in agriculture, wholesale trade, and educational services, with no major named employers identified in available sources. The town has been on a long trajectory of gradual population decline, consistent with many small Great Plains communities, with no major new housing developments or growth projects reported. Civic life centers on City Hall, where the council meets monthly, and likely on the school itself given the town's size.
The school's enrollment is small even for a rural Great Plains elementary, with the largest grade cohorts in the early elementary years and progressively smaller groups in the upper grades. The student body is almost entirely white, with a small number of American Indian or Alaska Native students and no other racial or ethnic groups represented in the reported data. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Information on students with individualized education programs or English learners was not available, which is a gap a parent may want to ask the school about directly.
Academic results come from the 2024-25 administration of the ND A-PLUS assessment, North Dakota's newly adopted system. Because the assessment name and proficiency cut scores both changed this year, no prior-year comparisons are possible, so the results below represent a baseline rather than a trend.
In math, the school's results span a wide range depending on grade level. Third grade proficiency sits in a lower band, while fourth and fifth grade results land in a higher band. Middle-grade results, where reported, fall between those two poles. Across all grades tested, math appears to be the school's relatively stronger subject. English language arts follows a similar pattern of grade-level variation, with third grade in a lower band and fourth and fifth grade in a middling range. Science results are more mixed: fourth grade lands in a middling band, while eighth grade results, where they appear, fall in a lower band. Across all subjects, science is the school's weakest area.
One wrinkle in the data: results for seventh and eighth grade appear in the assessment records even though the school's listed grade band runs only through sixth grade. This may reflect district-level reporting or an arrangement beyond the school's own enrollment, but the data does not specify why. A parent with a child approaching the upper elementary years may want to clarify with the district how middle-grade testing is handled.
Participation rates across all tested grades and subjects sit at a level below what many states expect for full accountability, which could reflect the school's small enrollment making participation counts sensitive, or other local factors. This is something a parent may want to look into further with the school, especially given that the data does not explain the reason.
Beyond test results, the available data is thin. No staffing information, attendance figures, discipline data, course access details, or program offerings were provided. No comparison fact-set positioning the school against neighboring districts was available. No housing market data for the area was included. The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes or initiatives in recent years. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence reflects the grade band rather than any gap in performance.
What the picture shows is a very small rural school in a quiet, contracting agricultural town, with math as its relative academic strength, science as its softer spot, and a newly reset assessment system that makes it hard to judge direction yet. The school's size means class cohorts are small, which can mean close teacher attention but also limited peer groups. Families considering Scranton Elementary would benefit from asking the district directly about middle-grade arrangements, student support services, and participation patterns, since the available data leaves those questions open.
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