Vision:
The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) School Accountability Report Cards and Dashboard provide
accessible, meaningful, and actionable information to educators, families, and communities about public schools
across the state. The reported measures were selected to both meet federal requirements and address the needs and
desires of diverse stakeholders, who contributed to the design and implementation of the new reports. North Dakota
public education is rooted firmly in the belief that all schools should be engaged in a cycle of continuous
improvement. The information provided by the School Accountability Report Cards highlights areas of strength and
celebration, while also identifying room for growth and improvement.
Accountability Indicators:
These measures were selected by local stakeholders to align with the core value that all students should graduate
from North Dakota schools Choice Ready ; meaning they have the skills, knowledge, and opportunities to successfully
transition into a post-secondary pathway of their choosing (e.g., college, workforce, military). The accountability
indicators act as checkpoints to ensure that schools are serving students in a variety of areas, with the ultimate
goal of cultivating Choice Ready graduates.
- Graduation Rate: High school graduation is an important milestone for students, enabling them to choose a path
aligned with their skills and passions. This measure examines the four-year cohort graduation rate for students.
- Completer Rate: Students take multiple pathways to post-secondary success, including attainment of a GED. This
measure recognizes all students graduating with a high school diploma in a given school year and those
completing GED requirements prior to age 22.
- Growth in ELA and Math: Students demonstrate academic success in multiple ways. The growth measure examines how
schools are helping student get - or stay - on track to ensure readiness for post-secondary success.
- English Learner Proficiency (ELP) Growth: The ELP measure provides valuable information on how schools are
supporting English Learners in attainment of English proficiency within anticipated timeframes.
- Student Engagement: Each year, students complete a Student Engagement Survey to provide valuable feedback about
their learning experiences. This measure highlights the degree to which students demonstrate three types of
engagement: Committed, Compliant, and Disengaged. Beginning in 2021-2022 academic year, districts will receive
full credit for Committed and half credit for Compliant.
- State Assessment Proficiency: The state summative assessments are standards-based, criterion-referenced tesst
that measure how well students have mastered the challenging North Dakota state content standards.
- Choice Ready Rate: Readiness for post-secondary success is a core value for North Dakota public education. This
measure celebrates the multiple pathways students take after graduation (college, workforce, military) and how
schools are preparing students to have agency and choice in selection of their path.
- School Support: Federal law requires school accountability measures to identify categories of schools that
necessitate additional support to meet improvement goals. These include Comprehensive Support and Targeted
Support schools. However, North Dakota believes that all schools can improve and aims to provide support to all
schools. Therefore, all schools across the state receive general support to aid in continuous improvement
efforts, with additional supports provided to schools meeting specified criteria.
For additional information on each of these indicators, including calculation methods, data sources, and business
rules, see the School Accountability Calculation.
Continuous Improvement:
All schools can improve. The School Accountability Report Cards are a useful tool to support educators in engaging
in a cycle of continuous improvement. The report cards provide the following information to help schools identify
improvement priorities. Accountability, Support, and Improvement resources and information can be found here: https://www.nd.gov/dpi/districtsschools/essa/accountability-support-improvement.
Accountability Pie: The “Accountability Pie” visually represents a school’s performance across all indicators. Each
“slice” represents an indicator and the degree to which the school earned possible points. The “Room for
Improvement” slice is comprised of all unattained points and may be used to identify improvement priorities.
School Support: All schools receive tools to support improvement planning and efforts. NDDPI identifies two
additional categories of support for schools meeting specific criteria based on accountability indicators. Schools
identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) or Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) receive additional services from NDDPI and federal
funds to aid in specific interventions to improve student outcomes. Information on definitions, methodology, and
exit criteria can be found on the NDDPI website at the links above.
NDDPI has added a “Comparison Group” designation indicating whether performance is calculated based upon the
following:
Current: Performance is based upon having at least 10 students for the given indicator in the current academic
year.
3 Year Average: Performance is based upon adding the numerator and denominator for the measure from the last three
years to achieve a total of at least 10 students.
Suppressed (< 10): indicates that points for the indicator were equitably redistributed across the remaining
indicators with at least 10 students due to there being less than 10 students in the last three academic years
* A note regarding N-Size Rules and Point Redistribution:
Beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year, if the N-size for any of the ESSA accountability indicators for a
school’s “All Students” subgroup is less than ten for a given indicator, NDDPI will use the numerator and
denominator from the current year and each of the two years prior to determine the outcome for the
indicator. The numerator and denominator from the three separate years will be added together. Since this
process would be triggered by indicator, a school could have the process triggered for student achievement
and choice ready, but not for student engagement. If a school has ten or more students per indicator, these
schools will use the current year of data, and the calculations will run per the existing business rules.
Point redistribution maintains the principle that conducting equitable school accountability ratings
requires a school to possess an adequate number of students to be assessed fairly and maintain student
privacy, given that school report cards are publicly reported. Schools with less than ten students for any
indicator measure after implementation of the N-size business rules above have their points for that measure
equitably redistributed across the remaining qualifying indicator measures.
Just as students’ report cards provide a snapshot of their school performance, North Dakota Accountability
Report Cards provide a snapshot of how schools across the state are serving students in a variety of areas.
While no one report can tell the full story of North Dakota schools, the dashboard features information on
important measures that inform stakeholders how to better support students.
Please contact North Dakota's Department of Public Instruction with any questions and feedback via email to
the following address: dpidashboard@nd.gov
Just as students’ report cards provide a snapshot of their school performance, North Dakota Accountability Report Cards provide a snapshot of how schools across the state are serving students in a variety of areas.
While no one report can tell the full story of North Dakota schools, the dashboard features information on important measures that inform stakeholders how to better support students.