Drayton High School

Drayton High School is a small public high school in Drayton, North Dakota, serving 49 students in grades 9-12. The school is part of the Drayton 19 School District, which is ranked 121 out of 134 districts in the state and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Drayton High School has consistently ranked in the bottom half of North Dakota high schools in recent years, with a ranking of 109 out of 125 schools in the 2024-2025 school year.

While Drayton High School has had relatively stable four-year graduation rates, ranging from 80% to 84.2%, its test scores are consistently lower than the state averages across all subjects and grade levels. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 20% of Drayton High School students were proficient or better in math, reading, and science, compared to the state averages of 22%, 41%, and 30%, respectively, for 10th-grade students. The school also has a relatively high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 33.33% to 40.82% over the past few years, suggesting a higher proportion of students from low-income families.

Interestingly, the closest comparable school to Drayton High School is Grafton High School, located about 15 miles away. Grafton High School has a larger student population of 291 students and is also part of a lower-ranked school district (Grafton 18), but it outperforms Drayton High School in several key metrics, such as test scores, graduation rates, and chronic absenteeism rates. This suggests that Drayton High School may be facing significant challenges in providing a high-quality education to its students, despite its high spending per student and low student-teacher ratio.