Original Research by School Decision on Medina Elementary School
Medina Elementary School sits in a very small rural farming and ranching community in Stutsman County, North Dakota, just north of I-94. The town bills itself as the "Gateway to Chase Lake," a nearby National Wildlife Refuge that serves as the largest breeding ground for American White Pelicans in North America. The pelican mascot greets visitors on the town's water tower. Medina originated as a railroad siding in the 1870s and grew along the former Northern Pacific line, with a small downtown business district near the tracks and scattered residential streets. Publicly reported data describes a community that has experienced steady population decline over decades, a pattern typical of small Plains agricultural towns. No major new housing developments or growth projects surfaced in the available research. The town is accessed primarily by highway, with no indication of public transit or pedestrian-oriented infrastructure beyond the basic small-town grid.
The school is a regular public school serving prekindergarten through sixth grade, part of the Medina 3 district. It is a small school for its grade band, with a single class per grade level. The student body is nearly entirely white, with a small number of students identified as two or more races. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
State assessment results from the current year come from North Dakota's A-PLUS assessment, which represents a change in both the assessment name and proficiency cut scores from prior years. Because of these changes, trend comparisons with past years are not reliable, and the data available covers only this single year. Participation rates across grades were generally around the state's expected threshold, with one grade slightly higher.
In mathematics, the picture varies considerably by grade. Third grade stands out as a strong point, with proficiency in the upper range. Fourth grade results fall in a lower band, and fifth grade sits in a middling range. Sixth grade, the highest grade served, lands in a moderate band as well. Across all tested grades combined, roughly half of students reached proficiency in math, which is a mixed result. The wide variation from grade to grade is worth noting, and a parent may want to ask the school how instruction and support differ across those classrooms.
English language arts results are softer. Third grade proficiency lands in a moderate band, but fourth grade drops into the lower range. Fifth grade is middling, and sixth grade sits in the lower band. Across all grades, fewer than a third of students demonstrated proficiency in ELA. This is a clear area where a parent would want to look into the school's reading and writing instruction further. Science was tested only in fourth grade among the grades this school serves, and results there also fell in the lower band.
Because the assessment changed this year, there is no dependable way to say whether these results represent improvement or decline from prior performance. The data is a single-year snapshot under a new system. A parent asking whether the school is improving would need to wait for at least one more year of comparable results.
The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, referendums, or property-tax developments in recent years. The district operates two schools and is classified as rural remote. No information was available about specific program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, or attendance patterns for this school. These gaps mean the academic picture rests almost entirely on the assessment results described above.
For a family considering Medina Elementary, the school offers a very small, tight-knit setting where children grow up alongside the same peers in a quiet agricultural community. The academic results are uneven, with a bright spot in early-grade math but consistent weakness in reading and writing across most grades. Parents weighing this school would benefit from asking directly about literacy instruction, how the school supports students who are not yet proficient, and what resources are available given the community's declining tax base. The natural surroundings and rural character define daily life here, and the school is very much a product of that context.
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