Park River Area High School

Park River Area High School is a public high school serving grades 7-12 in Park River, North Dakota, with a total enrollment of 191 students. This school consistently ranks among the top high schools in the state, maintaining a 4-star rating from SchoolDigger for most of the past decade and demonstrating strong academic performance.

One of the key factors that sets Park River Area High School apart is its exceptional performance among female students, ranking as high as 5th out of 54 North Dakota high schools for female students in the 2021-2022 school year. However, the school's performance for male students has been more variable, with a ranking as low as 45th out of 54 in the same year. The school's test scores are consistently above the state averages in mathematics, reading, and science, with 44% of students proficient or better in math and science in the 2024-2025 school year, compared to the state averages of 22% and 30%, respectively, for 10th-grade students. Additionally, Park River Area High School has maintained high four-year graduation rates, ranging from 82.4% to 89.3% over the past few years, which are above the state average.

While Park River Area High School outperforms many of the nearby schools, such as Valley-Edinburg High School, in academic metrics, the school's relatively low percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 24.75% to 29.08% over the past few years, suggests that the school may have a more advantaged student population compared to some of the nearby schools. Additionally, the school's increase in spending per student, from $8,696 in 2018-2019 to $10,197 in 2021-2022, and its relatively low student-teacher ratio, ranging from 13.9 to 14.4 over the past few years, may be contributing factors to its strong academic performance.