Original Research by School Decision on North Border-pembina Elementary School
North Border-Pembina Elementary School is a regular public school in Pembina, North Dakota, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade as part of the North Border 100 district. The school is small, with a total enrollment that reflects the tiny community it sits in. Class sizes across the grade bands are modest, which is a defining feature of the experience here rather than an incidental detail. A large majority of students are white, with a smaller Hispanic presence and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. About a quarter of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not reported, so a parent wanting to understand special-population services would need to ask the school directly.
Pembina itself is a very small border town at the confluence of the Red River of the North and the Pembina River, just south of the Canada-United States boundary. It claims the distinction of being the oldest European-American settlement in the Dakotas, with roots in fur trading and cross-border commerce. The local economy is anchored by the port of entry, customs and brokerage services, and a Motor Coach Industries assembly line that opened there. Interstate 29 runs along the western edge of town, connecting Pembina to Grand Forks to the south and the Canadian border to the north. The city describes itself as having a stable population and positions itself as a good location for families. Publicly reported sources note no major new housing developments or commercial construction projects. The civic core sits along Rolette Street near the city office and grocery store, with Pembina State Museum and Pembina State Park nearby. The town functions primarily as a residential community and border-crossing waypoint rather than a commercial hub.
On state assessments, North Dakota administered the A-PLUS test in the most recent school year, and the results are reported as ranges rather than exact proficiency figures. This is common for schools with small grade-level cohorts, where precise numbers could identify individual students. The ranges give a general sense of where proficiency landed. In math, most grade levels show results in a middling-to-solid range, with sixth grade appearing particularly strong and seventh grade at the lower end. In English language arts, the picture is more uneven. Third and eighth grade land in a middling range, fifth and sixth grade appear somewhat stronger, and seventh grade is notably lower. Eighth-grade science falls in a middling band. The assessment system itself changed this year, with a new test name and new cut scores, so the state notes that results are not directly comparable to prior years and trend data is not available.
A parent reading these results should keep the small numbers in mind. With only a handful of students per grade, a single student's performance can shift a grade-level result substantially. The ranges are broad, which reflects that uncertainty. What the data does suggest is that math is the relative strength across most grades, while ELA, particularly in the upper elementary and middle grades, is an area where a parent may want to look into this further with the school.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Participation rates on state assessments were reported for each tested grade. No data was available on staffing ratios, course offerings or program specifics, discipline, attendance, or Title I status. We looked for information on the district's strategic priorities or recent parent-relevant changes but found little, so we left it out rather than guess. No housing value or rental data was provided for the area, and no neighbor comparison among county districts was available.
What a family gets here is a very small rural school in a historic border town with a stable but limited economic base. The small size means close adult attention and likely strong community familiarity, but it also means thinner program offerings and assessment results that fluctuate with cohort size. For a family drawn to a quiet, small-town setting along the I-29 corridor, the school's math performance is a reasonable starting point, and its ELA results are the area most worth asking about before enrolling.
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