Original Research by School Decision on Belfield Elementary School
Belfield Elementary School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the small western North Dakota town of Belfield, part of the Belfield 13 district. The enrollment is small, with roughly two dozen students per grade level and a pre-kindergarten classroom that adds a handful of younger children. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic presence and a few students identifying as multiracial or from other backgrounds. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a moderate level for the region. The school does not report English-learner counts or special-education rates, so families needing information about those services would want to ask the school directly.
Belfield itself is a compact community sitting at the junction of Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 85, about a short drive from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Publicly reported sources describe it as a self-styled "Gateway City to the West" whose economy rises and falls with Bakken oil activity. The town has a traditional main-street layout with City Hall and civic functions along Main Street, but its character is shaped heavily by highway through-traffic and oil-field service commerce rather than a pedestrian-oriented streetscape. The housing stock reflects boom-bust patterns, with a notable vacancy rate consistent with transient workforces. Home values in the school's zip code sit below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent appreciation has been strong, suggesting a market still influenced by energy-sector demand. Rents were not available in the data.
Academically, the most recent state results come from the 2024-25 administration of North Dakota's A-PLUS assessment. The state flagged this year as involving both a new assessment name and changed cut scores in math, English language arts, and science, which means trend comparisons against prior years are not reliable. With that caveat, the current results show a mixed picture. In math, proficiency ranges vary widely by grade. The third-grade cohort lands in a moderate-to-strong band, while fourth and fifth grade results fall into lower ranges. Sixth grade sits in a moderate band. In English language arts, the pattern is similarly uneven: fifth grade shows a strong proficiency range, but fourth grade falls lower, and the remaining tested grades scatter across moderate bands. Science, tested only in fourth and eighth grade, shows moderate results.
One thing worth noting is that the school's directory lists its served grades as pre-kindergarten through sixth, yet the assessment data also includes seventh- and eighth-grade results for this school. The data does not explain the discrepancy, so a parent with a child entering those upper grades may want to confirm directly with the district how grade configuration works.
Because only one year of results is available and the assessment itself changed, there is no meaningful trend to describe. Participation rates across grades and subjects were generally in the eight-to-nine-tenths range, which leaves a portion of students untested in each cohort. Tested-student counts were not reported, which is typical for schools with very small grade-level cohorts where publishing exact figures could identify individual students.
The school does not have a graduation rate, as it does not serve high school grades. No data was provided on program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or Title I status, so those dimensions cannot be characterized here. The district brief returned no parent-relevant changes or strategic priorities, and no neighbor comparison set was available to position Belfield 13 against surrounding districts.
What the available picture suggests is a small-town elementary school serving a tight-knit community in an energy-driven local economy. The academic results are uneven across grades and subjects, with some cohorts performing well and others showing weaker proficiency, though the changed assessment makes it hard to say whether that reflects a stable pattern or a one-year artifact. Housing is relatively affordable compared with state and national levels, but the market carries the volatility that comes with oil-country boom-bust cycles. For a family considering Belfield, the school's small size means individual attention is likely but program breadth may be limited. The gaps in the data, particularly around special populations, staffing, and programs, are worth probing directly with the school before making a decision.
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