Original Research by School Decision on North Star High School
North Star High School sits in Cando, the county seat of Towner County, North Dakota, a small agricultural trade center about 40 miles south of the Canadian border and roughly 95 miles west of Grand Forks. The town brands itself as the Duck Hunting Capital of North Dakota, and its economy runs on farming, a handful of manufacturing operations, and the Towner County Medical Center, which ranks among the area's largest employers. A compact grid of streets, a Main Street business district, five churches, a nine-hole golf course, and the Audi Theatre give Cando the texture of a classic prairie town. It is a place where most people drive to work, civic life centers on Main Street, and the school campus sits apart from the downtown core. The community is not growing. Population has been slipping since the 2020 census, and no major new housing or commercial construction surfaced in publicly reported sources. For a family weighing a move here, the housing market is a draw: home values run well below both the North Dakota and national benchmarks, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is modest. Rental data was not available.
North Star High School is the high school for the North Star school district, formed when the former Cando district merged with Bisbee-Egeland. It serves grades nine through twelve and is small enough that each graduating class is a tight cohort. The total enrollment sits in the mid-seventies, with relatively even distribution across the first two grades and a slight taper in the upper grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and one or two students from other racial backgrounds. About three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner services was not reported, so a parent whose child receives those supports would want to ask the school directly about what is available.
On the most recent state assessments, North Star posted proficiency rates that are low across all three tested subjects. English language arts saw roughly three in ten students scoring proficient. Math was the weakest area, with only about one in ten reaching proficiency. Science landed in between, with close to two in ten proficient. Only a single year of data was available, so there is no trend to read, and the small student body means year-to-year results can swing with just a few students. Still, the numbers are what they are, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school, asking how the curriculum and instruction are structured and what supports exist for students who are not yet at grade level.
Beyond test scores, the picture thins out. No graduation rate was provided in the data. Course access information, including any Advanced Placement, dual-credit, or career and technical education offerings, was not available. Staffing ratios, attendance rates, and discipline data were all absent. Program offerings were not reported. The district-level search turned up little of lasting note beyond routine school board business, so there is no recent strategic priority or facility change to relay. These gaps mean a family would need to go directly to the school and district for the substance of the academic program, the breadth of electives, and the supports wrapped around students.
What is clear from the assembled evidence is that North Star High School is a very small rural high school in an agricultural community with affordable housing, a stable but declining population, and limited publicly available information about its academic program and outcomes. The proficiency data that does exist is modest across the board. For a family already rooted in or drawn to this part of North Dakota, the school offers a small, familiar environment where teachers likely know every student by name. The trade-off is that the publicly visible academic results are thin, and the information gap about programs, staffing, and graduation outcomes is wide enough that a thorough conversation with the school would be the next practical step before any enrollment decision.
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