Seven ND Reservation-Area Districts Rebounded in 2025—but All Trailed the State

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Correction (July 29, 2026): An earlier version ended with 2024 data and said the districts' earlier gains had been entirely reversed. North Dakota's 2025 district file is now available, and it shows a substantial rebound across most of the comparison set. This version adds 2025, treats Solen's missing 2025 row as missing rather than carrying its prior rate forward, and removes unsupported explanations involving the pandemic, transportation, internet access and federal school counts.

The seven districts in this article's reservation-area comparison set with published data in both years recorded 255 graduates among 364 students in 2024, a combined rate of 70.1%. In 2025, they recorded 285 graduates among 358 students, lifting the combined rate to 79.6%.

North Dakota's published statewide rate also rose, from 82.4% to 84.2%. The selected districts' gap with the state narrowed from 12.3 percentage points to 4.6 points. That is a 7.8-point narrowing in one year.

Five districts improved

Five of the seven districts improved from 2024 to 2025. Warwick was unchanged, and Mandaree declined.

District	2024 rate	2025 rate	Change	2025 cohort	2025 graduates
Belcourt^↗	68.0%	81.8%	+13.8 points	165	135
New Town^↗	72.5%	81.8%	+9.3 points	55	45
Fort Totten^↗	69.0%	77.8%	+8.8 points	54	42
White Shield^↗	76.9%	83.3%	+6.4 points	12	10
Dunseith^↗	73.5%	77.8%	+4.3 points	45	35
Warwick^↗	66.7%	66.7%	0.0 points	15	10
Mandaree^↗	69.2%	66.7%	-2.5 points	12	8

The rebound was broad, but it did not erase the statewide gap. Every district in the 2025 comparison remained below the state rate of 84.2%. White Shield came closest at 83.3%, a difference of 0.9 points.

Belcourt reached a new panel high

Belcourt produced the largest year-over-year increase. Belcourt rose from 68.0% in 2024 to 81.8% in 2025, a gain of 13.8 points. The district recorded 135 graduates in a cohort of 165.

That 81.8% rate is Belcourt's highest in the 2013-2025 package panel. It is higher than the 81.0% rate the district recorded in 2018, which the prior version described as its peak.

Solen is absent from the 2025 district file

The comparison set contains eight districts, but only seven have a published district row for 2025. Solen^↗ is absent from that file. Its latest package row is 2024, when the district recorded 11 graduates among 26 students, a rate of 42.3%.

Solen is therefore excluded from both years of the combined 2024-2025 comparison. Treating its missing 2025 value as zero or carrying forward its 2024 rate would distort the result.

What the data do and do not show

The district rates are four-year cohort rates. Several districts have small cohorts, so a change in the outcomes of a few students can move a percentage substantially. The combined rates use the sum of published graduate counts divided by the sum of published cohort counts for the same seven districts in each year.

The data establish that most of the selected districts rebounded in 2025 and that all seven remained below the state rate. They do not identify a cause for either pattern.

Data from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. Graduation rates represent four-year cohort rates. All years use the end-year convention (2025 = class of 2025).

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Dunseith - EdTribune ND - North Dakota Education Data

Seven ND Reservation-Area Districts Rebounded in 2025—but All Trailed the State

Five districts improved

Belcourt reached a new panel high

Solen is absent from the 2025 district file

What the data do and do not show