28 public K-12 schools in Bismarck from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Bismarck has more public-school enrollment than 87% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Bismarck sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
19 of Bismarck's 28 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 3 middle and 4 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.
The 56-point gap between Naughton Elementary School and Becep Center shows the range hidden by Bismarck's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Bismarck school enrollment ranges from 12 students (lowest) to 1,419 students (highest), a spread of 1,407 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Bismarck is typically wider than the Bismarck-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Naughton Elementary School | 66 |
| 2. | Liberty Elementary School | 62 |
| 3. | Highland Acres Elementary School | 60 |
| 4. | Prairie Rose Elementary School | 58 |
| 5. | Roosevelt Elementary School | 58 |
| 6. | Rita Murphy Elementary School | 57 |
| 7. | Apple Creek Elementary School | 54 |
| 8. | Centennial Elementary School | 53 |
| 9. | Grimsrud Elementary School | 52 |
| 10. | Sunrise Elementary School | 50 |
| 11. | Northridge Elementary School | 50 |
| 12. | South Central Alternative High School | 49 |
| 13. | Pioneer Elementary School | 48 |
| 14. | Victor Solheim Elementary School | 46 |
| 15. | Robert Place Miller Elementary School | 46 |
| 16. | Century High School | 45 |
| 17. | Dorothy Moses Elementary School | 45 |
| 18. | Jeannette Myhre Elementary School | 44 |
| 19. | Legacy High School | 39 |
| 20. | Horizon Middle School | 39 |
| 21. | Will-Moore Elementary School | 39 |
| 22. | Simle Middle School | 37 |
| 23. | Wachter Middle School | 35 |
| 24. | Manning Elementary School | 35 |
| 25. | Bismarck High School | 30 |
| 26. | Silver Ranch Elementary School | 30 |
| 27. | Elk Ridge Elementary School | 27 |
| 28. | Becep Center | 10 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Naughton Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Bismarck schools in this federal-data comparison at 66/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Bismarck has 28 public schools with a total enrollment of 13,587 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.9:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in North Dakota →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
