Original Research by School Decision on Mott-regent Elementary School
Mott-Regent Elementary School sits in Mott, the county seat of Hettinger County in southwestern North Dakota. It is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, part of the Mott-Regent Public School District, which Mott shares with the nearby community of Regent. The district's mascot is the Wildfire, and all K through 12 grades are located in Mott, making the school a central institution in a town where civic life, commerce, and education sit within a compact footprint.
Mott is a small rural farming and ranching community. The Cannonball River runs through town, and a volunteer-maintained walking trail loops along its banks. The town bills itself as the Pheasant Hunting Capital of The Nation and promotes a retirement- and sportsman-friendly character. Employment spreads across agriculture, healthcare, and education, with no single dominant employer. A local medical clinic operates in town, though the nearest hospital is a drive away. The community has experienced steady population decline over decades, a trajectory typical of rural Great Plains towns. No major new housing developments are evident. The cost of living is low relative to the national average. Street life is minimal, with gathering spots like a senior center and the K of C Hall anchoring social activity.
The school is small, with total enrollment in the low hundreds. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
State assessment results come from the ND A-PLUS test, administered for the first time in the 2024-25 school year. Because this is a new assessment with changed proficiency cut scores, no multi-year trend data exists yet, and comparisons to prior years would not be reliable. The state reports proficiency as ranges rather than point estimates, which is common for schools with small grade-level cohorts where individual student results could be identifiable.
In math, third-grade proficiency was strong, landing in a high band. Fourth-grade results were moderate. Fifth and sixth grades landed in a moderate to lower range. Reading and language arts results were generally lower across the tested grades. Third grade and sixth grade sat in a lower band, fourth grade was lower still, and fifth grade reached a moderate range. Science was tested only in fourth grade, where proficiency landed in a low band. A parent wondering about reading outcomes may want to look into this further with the school, particularly given that ELA results were the weakest area across most tested grades.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. No data on program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or civil-rights indicators was available, so those areas are left out rather than guessed. The district brief turned up no evidence of recent referendums, curriculum changes, property-tax shifts, or other parent-relevant developments, which means there is little to report on that front.
What the picture shows is a small rural elementary school in a contracting but tight-knit community, with solid early-grade math performance, weaker reading results across most grades, and a first year of new state testing that limits any read on whether things are improving or slipping. Families considering Mott-Regent Elementary are looking at a place where class sizes are small, the school is woven into the town's identity, and the surrounding community is agricultural and quiet. The academic question worth asking the school directly is what is driving the reading results and what supports are in place for literacy growth.
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