Original Research by School Decision on Kidder County Elementary School
Kidder County Elementary School sits in Steele, the county seat of Kidder County, North Dakota. Steele is a small rural agricultural community roughly forty miles east of Bismarck, platted in the late nineteenth century alongside the railroad. The town is compact, laid out on a grid around Broadway, with the county courthouse, city offices, and a community center forming the civic core. Publicly reported sources describe the population as slowly declining over recent decades, despite the city's own website calling it a growing community. Major employers are not documented in available sources, but the typical pattern for a county seat of this size points to county government, the school district, and agricultural services. No public transit serves the town, and residents rely on personal vehicles.
The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade and operates as a regular public school within Kidder County 1. Enrollment is small for a school spanning that many grades. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small number of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, and multiracial. A moderate share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learners was not available. The school's Title I status was not reported.
State assessment results come from the ND A-PLUS assessment for the 2024-25 school year. This is a newly named assessment with changed cut scores, so no trend comparison against prior years is possible. Results are reported as ranges rather than point estimates, which commonly reflects small class sizes in rural schools and the privacy protections that follow from them.
In mathematics, most tested grades show moderate to strong proficiency. The upper elementary and middle grades tend toward the higher end of their reported ranges, with one grade reaching the strongest band in the dataset. Fourth grade stands out as the weakest, landing in a lower range than the other grades. English language arts results follow a similar pattern: moderate proficiency across most grades, with fourth grade again the softest. Science was tested in two grades, with one landing in a lower range and the other showing stronger results. Taken across all tested grades, the school's overall proficiency sits in the middle range for math and English language arts, with science slightly below the other two subjects.
A point of note: the school's stated grade band runs through sixth grade, yet the assessment data includes seventh and eighth grade results. The available data does not explain this discrepancy. A parent may want to look into this further with the school or district to understand the current grade configuration.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. No data on course access, staffing ratios, attendance, or discipline was available. Program offerings were not reported. We looked for recent district-level changes that parents might care about but found little of lasting impact, so that material was left out rather than guessed.
The housing market in Steele is modest relative to both state and national benchmarks. Home values sit well below the North Dakota statewide figure and roughly two-thirds of the national typical home value. The price-to-income ratio is low, suggesting housing is relatively affordable for the area. Year-over-year home value growth has been solid. No rental market data was available for this location. Mortgage rates currently hover in the mid-six percent range, and the national unemployment rate sits in the low fours.
For a family considering this school, the picture is of a small rural elementary with moderate academic results, a tight-knit community setting, and affordable housing in a quiet agricultural town within commuting distance of Bismarck. The academic data is limited to a single year under a new assessment, and several operational details were not reported, so a prospective parent would benefit from direct conversation with the school to fill in gaps around staffing, programs, and support services.
See more original research from School Decision →