North Dakota Gets D+ In Education Standards

Rob Port  •  January 27, 2012

According to the American Legislative Exchance Council, North Dakota’s K – 12 education system isn’t performing that well.

Per their report, their ranking “Contains scores and grades for policies that allow the state’s education system to make available high-quality education through accountability, high standards, public- and privateschool choice, high-quality teachers, and innovative delivery mechanisms.”

In that ranking, North Dakota’s school system and policies got a D+. To put that in context, Montana got a C, South Dakota got a C- and Minnesota got a B+.

In performance, North Dakota ranked 33rd in the nation. According to the report, North Dakota spends $10,378 in tax dollars per student per year meaning a classroom of 20 students is costing taxpayers $207,560.

North Dakota’s report card is below. Read the full report here.

Northdakota

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  • Wesbutte

    Oh pahleeze.  North Dakota is a rural area and not St. Paul—-thank God.    I have nothing good to say about the education here.   We have a very high graduation rate compared to other states.  I am a product of a very good public education in Minnesota  in the 60′s-70′s.   At that time the emphasis was on the essentials of education, ie math, grammar, history, civics, geography, composition, ect.    But now that is not the case.  It seems they spend more time on PC  stuff.    I have 8 children and I wanted them here.   So we decided not to go back to Minnesota.

  • Wesbutte

    I correct my statement.  I meant to say “I have nothing but good to say about the education here”.   Sorry.

    • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

      My memory of education in North Dakota, Valley City in particular, was that it was quite good—at least it was back in the 40s and 50s.  I went from VC to Hutchinson, MN, for H.S. and breezed through it—and that H.S. was pretty good as well.  Even at that time I could have tested out of most, if not all, of my freshman year at the U of Mn.  The H.S. at Valley City had an annual Science Fair & it was usual that at least one student went to the national level and a couple of projects got patents.  There is little relationship between $$ spent per student and quality of education.  Au contraire.  Yet the amount of money spent is factored into ratings.

      • borborygmi

        It was still good in the 80′s and 90′s and early 00′s  when my boys went through.  

  • Anonymous

    I’m really not surprised.  No choice with the education means the children lose.  Another government monopoly.

  • Ndconservative2011

    Over $10,000 per student and about 40% of high school graduates need to take remedial courses as freshmen in college just to be brought up to speed because K-12 does not cut it.  Sad to say the very least.
    Oh yeah, the liberals will know what to do - throw more money at the problem – that should fix it ! !
    How about getting rid of tenure to make it a lot easier to get rid of the bad teachers.
    Maybe teachers should have some form of testing to make sure that they are indeed qualified to teach.  If they do not meet the standards – GONE!

    • Old&IntheWay

      ND has tenure for their teachers?  Are you sure of that?  I also believe that before any teacher is certified in this state, they do have to take an exam, I believe it’s called the Praxis (sp?)  

      • Jimmypop

        fargo teachers do. they have to take ceus but require not testing to keep their jobs.

        if you have problem with teachers, look at your school board, not the teachers.

        • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

          In my day—and that goes back to early times—all but a very few parents backed teachers 100% (right or wrong).  The community backed parents on discipline, and it was not considered a big deal if an adult other than the parents gave a kid a whack for misbehaving. 

        • borborygmi

          If you have a problem with education look at the parents.  There is a correlation between parents involvement and what the children get out of school.

    • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

      Having taught in the public school system for a number of years, I knew of teachers who knew less about their subject than some of the students in the class, and even more teachers who lacked the imagination and thinking ability of many of the students.

      • borborygmi

        I know teachers who are proficient excellent teachers,  teachers that inspire. 

        • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

          No doubt about it.

  • Anonymous

    It’s interesting that the Dakotas and Minnesota rank towards the top of educational achievement from the government schools, and their rankings are D+ C- B+–all over the map really–while the lower scoring state also gets a C.  Seems like whatever criteria they were using don’t correlate well to actual academic performance.

    • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

      $$ spent per child is a major criterion, and it does not correlate with academic performance.

  • http://twitter.com/Dakota_Mel Dakota_Mel

    We have some outstanding teachers. We also have some that have no business working with children. It does not surprise me that we get a D- in identifying which are which. Of course, I’m not sure how much of a choke hold the unions have on our school system. Maybe we already know who the bad ones are and can’t do anything about it.

    If you want a closer look at the nightmarish hell that has been created by the Dept of Ed and the teachers unions watch the documentary – Waiting for Superman. (Last I looked it was available instantly at Netflix) It will open your eyes.

    • Vladdy

      Don’t forget layers of bureaucrats, folks. The administrators really run the schools, and they hate the veteran teachers who know what they’re doing — ad love the young, maleable oes who grew up on “The Pedagogy of Opression.” (Look it up, if you have the stomach).

    • two_amber_lamps

      Excellent movie (Waiting for Superman)  Hard to believe it was produced by the same guy who did the Goracle’s Inconvenient Truth, but WfS was worth the cd it was printed on and more.  Definitely a worthy watch.

  • Ben

    My children were in schools in both Grand Forks and Carver County, MN…then we moved to Alabama for a year, and now are living in Kentucky. They were very far ahead academically leaving ND/MN, now they’re struggling to get back on track now that we’re in KY. I took the superior school situation (in all categories) for granted during my job searches and got a huge dose of culture shock arriving in AL. This isn’t based on numbers like these reports, this is practical experience.

  • Hannitized, Proofs obsession

    Ouch!  But really, is anyone surprised?   California received a B grade, while Hawaii received a grade of C+

    • Wesbutte

      If California got a B, then that tells me this was rigged by liberals.

      • Hannitized, Proofs obsession

        You mean a conspiracy?  Of course, of course.

      • Ron

        The standards are much, much lower in California to compensate for the lower intelligence level of the liberals and illegals who can’t speak English. Same applies to the liberals that live on islands.

        • Hannitized, Proofs obsession

          Newt told the immigrants to learn the language of progress, not the language of the ghetto.  90% of the language spoken inside America’s ghettos is English.

          • Gil

            ” 90% of the language spoken inside America’s ghettos is English.”

            That’s because 90% of the ghetto’s are comprised of black Americans.

        • http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

          The level of corruption in education in Hawaii is unbelievable.

          • Hannitized, Proofs obsession

            Your involvement in the corruption you experienced should be properly stated.  Tell us about your level of involvement of corruption, so many years ago, before you were kicked out of Hawaii?

        • Francis

          California actually has some of the highest standards in the country.

  • http://nofreelunch.areavoices.com/ Kevin Flanagan

    Obviously, this indicates much more tax money needs to flow to the greedy, lazy members of the education cabal in this state.

  • Waski_the_Squirrel

    As an education insider (a teacher), I can tell you that schools in North Dakota need a lot of work. I can also tell you that the D ranking has very little to do with outcome. It has to do with what the authors of the study value. Things like charter schools, school choice, and other factors used to grade the state are good things, but they do not say anything about the quality of a state’s schools.

    I was also a bit puzzled to see that the study looks at low-income NAEP performance and indeed sets such a high priority on it. While low-income students are important, we can’t lose sight of the state performance overall. A much more useful and informative study about the quality of our schools would include things like NAEP scores (overall), ACT scores, percentage of in-state students who take remedial courses in college, and the percentage of students who enter and complete higher-education programs.

    At 38th, we’re far from the most expensive state. If we want to reduce costs further, we could shut down more small schools. However, my personal preference would be a flat per-student rate (perhaps extra funding for specific special needs cases). Size of the school would not affect the per-student funding. Then it would be up to local taxpayers to make up the difference and to decide whether or not they want to support their local school. 

    But let’s not base our opinion of education in the state on a study that factors in so many things that have nothing to do with the actual educational product the state produces. There are plenty of real issues with education in this state, and this study doesn’t provide any insight into them.

  • Jimmypop

    i dont buy it. not for a second. take our kids and throw them to florida, nevada, missouri ……and youll see even our dumb kids are standouts.

    as said above, its not a ‘rating’ its how good they do on tests, at work and in college. our kids dominate wherever they go off to. this is a study put out by the USD of Ed…a department that needs to be closed. and if you read the sheet…there is as much space dedicated to how well we pay our teachers as there is to student ‘scores’.

    it is crazy we dont allow charter schools, but thats how strong our teachers unions (and HUGE school districts protecting their fiefdoms) are. and, more important, how cowardly our ‘conservative’ leadership is. charters are the future. home schooling should be among the easiest thing to do..its not at all.

  • JanneMyrdal

    This proves that ND DPI needs sudden and relentless reform, – we MUST have to serious education reform in ND.  So, ND stop voting for Sanstead and find another candidate for head of DPI!!  Bur be aware that it is not another insider who will pander to NEA!  Also, get on the local school boards and get involved!

    • Jimmypop

      no, it doesnt…we are doing fine.

      this silliness means nothing more than the ept of ed needs to be closed because they call this a ‘study’

      • Opinionated

        No you are wrong. the ACT scores for North Dakota in 2011
        average percent ready for college in English 63       nationally 68
        average percent ready for college in reading 48       nationally 52
        average percent ready for college in math 43          nationally 45
        average percent ready for college in science 26      nationally 30
        students meeting all 4 benchmarks 21                   nationally 25
        average  North Dakota ACT SCORE 20.8 nationally 20.9
         We are below the national everage in every single category…. I am sorry. this is what every college uses to determine who is ready and who is not. Try getting into college without your ACT score. You can call these facts whatever you like, but students actually took the tests and they actually were graded and compared to all other states and while we have situations in North Dakota that mke us different from the  hardships of any other state.We are FAILING….DO YOU GET THIS… ARE KIDS ARE BECOMING MEDIOCRE AT BEST! This is a tragedy for a state that is soon to be a leader in prosperity. I did not make up the FACTS. But I am sounding the alarm.This is a tragedy and a very expensive one at that. Our schools are doing something wrong. They talk about providing tutors, how many kids needed tutors when you were in school? They talk about needing more equipment, for what, these are the most technologically advanced students ever and they are failing miserably. The answer is simple, we need to start over, completely over, and soon! Demand that schools who continue to fail our students are required to refund your tax money so that you can use it to take your kids where they will succeed! There are many private schools whose kids are not falling into this trap, like it or not!

  • JanneMyrdal

    I meant serious education reform…  This topic gets my blood boiling, so typed to fast and got some typos in there.  :(

    • Opinionated

      AGREED!!!!! SERIOUS REFORM….. it is not a money issue with these schools, it is not a lack of compensation, it is needing to go back to basics, extend the school day and stop passing failing students. They need to stay in that grade until they can do the work….We need more hands on instead of just book learning. We need to get back to handling BASICS! I know plenty of business people who say there are not enough skilled laborers and too many 4 year degrees. Why are colleges even letting your student in college without making all 4 benchmarks? WHy ? This is so easily fixed… The Federal Govt. handles all student loans now why not stop giving Pell Grants and student loans to students for 4 year colleges until they have been to a community college first and demonstrated success at this level. the government could then give more money to the brightest of our students and the otherd would be steered into what they were born to do anyway! Your student would a save a lot of money by not putting themsleves into a situation where not even 50% ever graduate from regardless of how many years they attend college. Colleges should be forced to hang signs outside of their schools with their avergae graduation rate for 4, 5, and 6, year students, the rates would make you cry

  • ec99

    How many of these little country schools that graduate 5 students or fewer a year offer little more than a bare-bones education?  They’ll consolidate their sports teams but not their academics.

  • Toppr8

    FACT:  ND has a great educational program, we have students doing as well as anywhere in the US, and as competative as anywhere in public education throughout this country! There are so many factors and biases that go into studies developing statements like the one in the headeline of this blog and you can’t simply compare.  ND’ans know what I am talking about!

    • Opinionated

      NO they don’t and facts back that up… We have some of the lowest ACT acceptance scores into college in the entire university system. We steer our kids away from taking the SAT because we know they would fail miserably… There will always be smart individuals but the system as a whole is a complete failure.I am sure your answer will be to blame the tests, blame the parents, and blame the students. The facts are this, teachers are hired to do a job, and that job is educating students. When they fail at that job they need to be fired. Tthere are plenty of people in the real world who could do this job and if they opened these jobs up to people with real world experience,solutions minded people, we would see these scores go up. We could just follow private education who does not seem to have a problem educating students on a dime. If we have to go 11 months, if we have to go eight hour days then we had better get it done, because they course we are currently on, is not working

      • ec99

        I agree with making teachers responsible, but lets face it, as long as “parents” dump their infants off at daycare centers and foist nurturing off on others, seeing them maybe 2 hours a day, they are nothing more than biological units.  This lack of parent involvement continues through K-12.  Fewer than 50% bother to show up for conferences. They don’t care, because they never cared.  Learning begins at home…which the parents have abandoned to “realize” themselves.

        • Opinionated

          Everything you said is spot one. We are the employers of these teachers since we pay the salary, It is not there job to find excuses or blame it is there job to get the job done. We are paying a small fortune to educate these kids and after they have taken complete control of our kids now they want our help… This is simply not working

  • Sp

    $10k per student per year?  And you are complaining?  Seems cheap to me.

    • Opinionated

      really in 2008 they were recommending that we spend $7293 per pupil and this would make us soar like birds and we are curently spending $10000 per pupil and failing miserably. The facts cab be found at dpi…of nd

  • Opinionated

    Since 2009 North Dakota dropped a full point on the ACT…. only 21% of North Dakota graduates who tested have met standards to succeed in  college so why do we push so many there? If less than 25% of your high school grads are college ready then something is seriously wrong and 10 grand a piece ain’t fixing it…. Call your Superintendent and tell them that they are failing and in the real world they would be fired! There ought to be a taxpayer revolt. They do not want parents to have any choice in the matter yet studetns are failing due to them. They seem to think that they are doing all the heavy lifting and parents are failing them….Well then maybe we need tougher teachers or our students will continue to fail in college. The highest portion of everyones soon to be finished property taxes, is what goes to failing schools…. pathetic… let them beg the legislature for funding and I will spend my property tax on whatever education that I see fit.. A vote to eliminate property tax will be a vote saying I am taking control of my life and you will not hold me and my home hostage to this failure anymore!!!

    • Louberg45

      Could the one reduction be due to a pushnin districts to test more students? Not necessarily only those who are seriously considering attending college???

      • Opinionated

        If colleges require ACT scores then students are going to have to test.Every other school is beginning to test all their students too, so it is all equal in the end. I want to know why if only 21% of students are college ready why are we using taxpayer money to finance education for kids that the testing has proven are not ready?

  • Opinionated

    Today’s students are being Outcome Based Education, as opposed to their grandfather’s or even their father’s education, are being systematically conditioned to think in “global” terms about humanity, nations, religions, and, of course, the environment. They are conditioned to be citizens, not of the United States, but of the world. That’s what you need when you’re creating a socialist one-world governmental system and that is exactly what is occurring at the United Nations.Today’s students are taught not to make value judgments about other nations, even if they are authoritarian dictatorships. They may not know where Brazil is on the map, but they “know” all the rain forests are disappearing. They don’t know when the Civil War took place or why, but they “know” that all the Founding Fathers were slave-owners. They also “know” that America’s history is one of destroying the native Indian nations, taking their land, and exploiting it with farms, mining, and the destruction of whole forests. They cannot tell you what the Bill of Rights is, but they “know” the US is the leading contributor of “greenhouse gases” to the atmosphere, thereby causing global warming. It is a full course of lies.They haven’t a clue about the individualism, sacrifice, daring and innovation that made this nation great, nor its political system, and most certainly not its history.

  • borborygmi

    That is the one thing good about surveys and reports.  You can always manipulate statistics to match the outcome you are looking for or in Robs case you can always find the survey with the manipulated statistics that support his I ‘hate public education’ position.  Well done Rob.

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