Original Research by School Decision on Lewis and Clark Elementary School
Lewis and Clark Elementary School sits on the northwest side of Mandan, a city of roughly mid-sized Plains proportions across the Missouri River from Bismarck. It is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, part of the Mandan 1 district. The school draws from a community that began as a Northern Pacific Railroad town and agricultural hub and has since diversified into food processing, petroleum refining, electrical power generation, software development, and manufacturing. A Marathon Petroleum refinery operates north of the city, BNSF Railway maintains a major facility, and a federal agricultural research station sits just south of town. State and federal correctional institutions border the city as well. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school serving this grade band, with a fairly even distribution across grades from kindergarten through fifth and a small pre-kindergarten cohort.
The student body is predominantly white, with American Indian and Alaska Native students and Hispanic students each making up a meaningful minority. A smaller portion of students identify as two or more races, Black, or Asian. About a quarter of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a relatively modest share. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those population details remain unknown. A parent may want to ask the school directly about special education and English learner services if either is relevant to their family.
On the most recent North Dakota A-PLUS assessment, reading results were the strongest area. Third-grade proficiency landed in the upper range among the tested grades, fourth grade came in somewhat lower, and fifth grade was the lowest of the three. Taken together, the school's overall reading proficiency sat near the middle of the range for a school of this type. Math proficiency was more modest across all three tested grades, with third grade the lowest and fourth and fifth grades slightly stronger but still in a middling band. Science was tested only in fourth grade, as is typical for the state, and proficiency there was the weakest of the three subjects reported. Participation was strong across all assessments. The state changed both the assessment name and proficiency cut scores for this testing cycle, which means the results are not directly comparable to prior years and no clean trend can be drawn from the available data.
Mandan itself offers a traditional downtown Main Street corridor with community events throughout the year, including a classic car show, a rodeo parade, summer concerts in Dykshoorn Park, holiday lights, and night markets. The city reports miles of walking and bike trails, numerous neighborhood parks, and recreational facilities ranging from golf courses to a skateboard park. Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, with reconstructed Custer-era fort buildings and a former Mandan village site, sits a short drive south. The city sits on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Despite these amenities, Mandan's footprint and highway corridors make daily life largely car-dependent, and the school's campus is separated from the downtown civic core.
The housing market in the school's zip code runs above the state benchmark but below the national one, and home values have been climbing at a healthy clip recently. Rents have risen even faster, though renting still costs considerably less per month than carrying a mortgage at current rates. For families weighing whether to buy or rent while zoned here, the monthly cost gap favoring renting is wide enough to matter. The broader Bismarck-Mandan metro area has been growing modestly, which places Lewis and Clark within a gradually expanding region rather than a static one.
Several categories of school-level data were not available, including Title I status, staffing ratios, discipline data, course access, and attendance figures. The district brief turned up no recent referendums, bond issues, curriculum changes, or property tax shifts that clear a lasting-impact threshold. This limits the picture a parent can assemble from public sources alone. A family considering Lewis and Clark would benefit from asking the school directly about support services, staffing, and any programs or interventions not captured in the available data, particularly given that the reading results are encouraging while math and science leave room for closer attention.
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