Summary:
The Dunseith 1 district contains a single high school, Dunseith High School, which serves grades 7 through 12 and has a total enrollment of 278 students.
Dunseith High School is facing significant challenges. The school ranks in the bottom 3% of all high schools in North Dakota (121st out of 125) for the 2024-2025 school year, a dramatic drop from the previous year. Academic proficiency is very low across all subjects, with only 19% of students proficient in math, 14% in reading, and 9% in science—all far below state averages. The school reports that 100% of its students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, indicating extreme socioeconomic need. The most alarming statistic is a chronic absenteeism rate of 68%, which is more than three times the state average of 20%. This likely drives the low test scores, a graduation rate of 77.8% (below the state average of 84.2%), and a dropout rate of 7.0% (higher than the state average of 4.0%).
Despite these struggles, the school is well-funded, spending $23,103 per student, and has a very low student-teacher ratio of 9.2:1, which allows for small class sizes. This creates a paradox where high spending and small classes are not translating into academic success, suggesting that resources are being consumed by the intense challenges of poverty and absenteeism. The school's ranking has also been highly volatile over the past three years, swinging from the 1st percentile to the 12th and back to the 3rd, indicating a lack of consistent improvement. For parents, the data strongly suggests that any meaningful improvement at Dunseith High School must first address the root cause of chronic absenteeism before academic gains can be expected.
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