Original Research by School Decision on Thompson Elementary School
Thompson Elementary School sits in the small residential community of Thompson, North Dakota, a quiet bedroom town a short drive south of Grand Forks in the Greater Grand Forks metropolitan area. The town grew rapidly through the late twentieth century as families settled here and commuted north for work, and growth has since leveled off. Publicly reported sources describe a community with very limited commercial presence, a single gas station and convenience store, and no traditional downtown. Most working residents travel to Grand Forks, where larger employers are concentrated. The town retains a quiet small-town character with single-family homes and civic functions centered on the municipal building.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school within Thompson Public School District 61. Enrollment is modest for its grade band, with fairly even distribution across the elementary grades. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is very low, which aligns with the community's publicly reported high median household income and near-negligible poverty rate. IEP and English-learner counts were not available, so those populations could not be characterized.
On the most recent state assessments, North Dakota administered the ND A-PLUS, a new assessment with changed cut scores, so the results stand as a fresh baseline rather than a point of comparison with prior years. In math, proficiency ranged across grades three through six with a clear pattern: third grade landed on the lower end, fourth and fifth grade sat in a middling band, and sixth grade stood out as the strongest by a wide margin, with a large majority of students reaching proficiency. In English language arts, the spread was somewhat tighter, with third grade showing solid proficiency, fourth and fifth grade settling into a mid-range, and sixth grade again performing well. Fourth-grade science, the only science grade tested at this school, landed in a middle band. Participation rates were high across all tested grades.
The sixth-grade results are the clearest strength in the data. Both subjects show the school's oldest tested cohort performing at a distinctly higher level than the younger grades, which may reflect the cumulative effect of the school's instruction or cohort differences. The lower third-grade math proficiency is a softer spot a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly whether it reflects the new assessment's baseline expectations or something specific to early-grade math instruction.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that gap simply reflects the grade band served. The same applies to advanced coursework, career pathways, and dual-credit offerings, which are not part of an elementary program. No data on staffing ratios, course access, discipline, or attendance was available, so those dimensions could not be assessed. We looked for the district's recent strategic changes but found little of lasting impact in publicly reported sources, so that section was left out rather than guessed.
Housing in the Thompson area runs above the North Dakota state benchmark and roughly in line with national figures, with appreciation over the past year outpacing both. No rental market data was available for the immediate area. For families considering buying, the cost of ownership here is meaningfully higher than in much of the state, reflecting the community's affluence and its appeal as a commuter suburb of Grand Forks. Renters will find little documented supply in town.
Thompson Elementary fits families drawn to a small, homogeneous, low-poverty community where the commute to Grand Forks provides access to employment and services the town itself does not offer. The academic data shows a school where upper-elementary students perform well, particularly in sixth grade, while younger grades show more mixed results on the state's new assessment. With several key data fields absent, families considering this school would benefit from direct conversations with the district about staffing, support services, and how early-grade instruction is structured.
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