Grand Forks 1
Six Districts, Half the State
North Dakota has 165 school districts. Six of them, Bismarck, West Fargo, Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, and Mandan, now enroll 57,254 students, or 49.2% of the state's 116,365 total. The remaining 159 di...
Grand Forks Cut Total Absences by 34-43%. Can the Model Scale?
For five years, Grand Forks went without a single year of improvement in chronic absenteeism. From 14% in 2017-18 to 27% in 2022-23, the rate moved sideways or up every year, with a 7-point jump in th...
Fargo and West Fargo Both Hit All-Time Low Graduation Rates as the Metro Booms
Correction (July 26, 2026): An earlier version of this article said that neither Fargo nor West Fargo responded to a request for comment. We never sent either district a request for comment on this st...
North Dakota's 16-Year Growth Era Ends
For 16 of the past 17 years, North Dakota added students. The Bakken oil boom pulled families into the western prairie. Fargo's suburbs sprawled east. The state's enrollment climbed from 93,406 in 200...