Original Research by School Decision on Cannon Ball Elementary School
Cannon Ball Elementary School is a small, regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It sits within the Solen Public School District 3. The community is a rural census-designated place with a predominantly Native American population, very low population density, and a high poverty rate. There is no traditional downtown or concentrated civic center; educational and civic functions are distributed across the broader region, with parts of Cannon Ball also served by the Fort Yates School District.
The school's enrollment is small, with roughly a dozen to two dozen students per grade level. Nearly all students identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, with a tiny handful from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school firmly in a high-need category. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not available, so those dimensions of the student body are unclear from what we have. No staffing, attendance, or disciplinary figures were reported either, which leaves a parent without a picture of classroom ratios or school climate from the quantitative side.
On North Dakota's A-PLUS assessment in the most recent school year, Cannon Ball Elementary's results were low. In math, proficiency across the tested grades fell in the lowest reported range. The aggregate math proficiency rate was very low. In English language arts, most grades also landed in the lowest range, with one grade placing slightly higher but still below the midpoint. The aggregate ELA rate was also very low. Science, tested in fourth grade, came in somewhat higher than math and reading but still in a range that indicates most students were not reaching proficiency. Participation across subjects was reported at a level that falls short of full participation, which is worth noting; lower participation can reflect mobility, absences, or other factors specific to the community, and a parent may want to ask the school what drove that rate. Because this is the first year of the A-PLUS assessment with changed cut scores, trend comparisons to prior years are not available.
As an elementary school, Cannon Ball has no graduation rate, no AP or career-technical course offerings, and no dual-credit pathways to speak of. Those measures simply do not apply at this grade level. No specific program offerings, magnet status, or charter designation were reported. The school operates as a regular public elementary school.
The locale brief tells us the population in Cannon Ball has remained relatively stable over recent decades, with no major new housing developments reported. We looked for major employers and civic anchors like parks, libraries, or transit and found nothing specific in the available sources, so those gaps are left open rather than filled. The district brief turned up no recent changes that would clear a bar of lasting impact for parents; publicly reported events from earlier years, including a federal grant to rebuild the school building and an embezzlement audit, predate the window for current parent-relevant change.
What a parent is looking at here is a very small, community-rooted elementary school serving an overwhelmingly Native American student body in a rural, high-poverty setting on tribal land. The academic results as measured by state testing are low across subjects, with science relatively stronger than math and reading. The data available is thin on school environment, staffing, and student support services, which means a parent considering this school would benefit from direct conversation with the school about classroom structure, support staff, attendance practices, and what the instructional program looks like day to day. Those are the dimensions the available data does not capture, and they matter as much as the test ranges for a school of this size and setting.
See more original research from School Decision →