NCES CCD 2024-25 29 schools ND

Best-Resourced Schools in Fargo, ND

Compiled from official source data by .

29 public K-12 schools in Fargo from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
29
Schools
13,379
Students
46.8/100
Avg Resource Index
11.7:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Fargo has more public-school enrollment than 87% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Fargo 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.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

20 of Fargo's 29 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 5 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 53-point gap between Fargo K-8 Virtual Academy and Fargo 9-12 Virtual Academy shows the range hidden by Fargo'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.

City enrollment
Top 13%
School count
Top 9%
Resource Index average
77th percentile
Teacher staffing
90th percentile

Fargo school enrollment varies 58× across entities

Fargo school enrollment ranges from 22 students (lowest) to 1,277 students (highest), a spread of 1,255 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme heterogeneity inside a single city, with small specialty programs listed alongside large comprehensive campuses. 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

Fargo student-teacher ratio is 11.7:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Fargo K-8 Virtual Academy 81
2. Explorer Academy 69
3. Mckinley Elementary School 61
4. Madison Elementary School 61
5. Deer Creek Elementary School 60
6. Washington Elementary School 55
7. Longfellow Elementary School 52
8. Discovery Middle School 50
9. Clara Barton Hawthorne Elementary School 50
10. Centennial Elementary School 48
11. Eagles Elementary School 48
12. Bennett Elementary School 46
13. Osgood Elem School 46
14. Independence Elementary School 46
15. Willow Park Elementary School 46
16. Kennedy Elementary School 45
17. Jefferson Elementary School 45
18. Carl Ben Eielson Middle School 44
19. Lewis and Clark Elementary School 43
20. Lincoln Elementary School 42
21. Ben Franklin Middle School 41
22. Dakota High School 41
23. Horace Mann Roosevelt Elementary School 40
24. Early Childhood Special Education School 37
25. Fargo Davies High School 35
26. Ed Clapp Elementary School 33
27. North High School 32
28. South High School 32
29. Fargo 9-12 Virtual Academy 28

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Fargo

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.

  1. 1 Jefferson Elementary School 76.8/100
  2. 2 Madison Elementary School 74.0/100
  3. 3 Explorer Academy 73.0/100
  4. 4 Lincoln Elementary School 72.0/100
  5. 5 Willow Park Elementary School 69.9/100

What do families ask about schools in Fargo?

Which Fargo school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Fargo K-8 Virtual Academy has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Fargo schools in this federal-data comparison at 81/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Fargo, ND? ▼

Fargo has 29 public schools with a total enrollment of 13,379 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.7:1.

Other Cities in North Dakota

Bismarck
28 schools
Minot
22 schools
West Fargo
17 schools
Grand Forks
16 schools
Mandan
13 schools
Williston
13 schools

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.