Jamestown High School Second Among Large Districts in Choice Ready Rates

Jamestown High School placed second among 21 large school districts in the state’s Choice Ready rates for the 2024-25 school year, recording an 80.52% Choice Ready rate compared with Watford City’s 82.61% and the statewide rate of 73.3%. The ranking, drawn from a newsletter issued by the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction and North Dakota Career and Technical Education, highlights Jamestown’s performance on the measures the state uses to judge postgraduation readiness.

Principal Darby Heinert framed the ranking as a milestone for the Class of 2025. “That’s a heck of an accomplishment,” Heinert said, adding that “it speaks highly to the talent and skills of our students that crossed the stage (graduated).” Heinert pointed to community service participation as an example of nonacademic preparation: “For 70% of our seniors last year, for them to have fulfilled the 25 hours of community service, that’s saying, hey, they have some great opportunities to give back to a community that’s given a lot to them and to learn about the intrinsic value of that volunteer experience.” He credited Jamestown teachers and guidance counselors for the outcome. “... At the end of the day, this is all about their academic performance.”

Choice Ready is one component of the state accountability system. “Choice Ready is a component in the state accountability system to measure whether high schools are producing students who are ready for success when they graduate.” The state framework measures four components: “Essential Skills, Post-Secondary Ready, Workforce Ready and Military Ready. Students have to meet criteria in Essential Skills and in two of the other three to be North Dakota Choice Ready.”

District documents provide additional context but come from different reporting years and capture different measures. Jamestown K12 reports that, according to 2021-2022 Future Ready Index data, 94.5% of Jamestown High School students met the Career Standards Benchmark, versus a statewide average of 88.3%. The same district materials show 2021-22 ELA PSSA proficiency of 61.6% at Jamestown High School, compared with a statewide proficiency rate of 54.1%. The district also flagged staffing concerns, noting, “Due to the high rate of science department turnover, we are placing a high emphasis on professional development in order to remain on track for the transition to the STEEL standards.” The district file includes administrative fields verbatim: Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs True Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs Omit Arts and Humanities True Arts and Humanities Omit Environment and Ecology True Environment and Ecology Omit Family and Consumer Sciences True Family and Consumer Sciences Omit Health, Safety, and Physical Education True Health, Safety, and Physical Education Omit Social Studies (Civics and Government, Economics, Geography, History) True Social Studies (Civics and Government, Economics, Geography, History) Omit Articulation Agreements False We do not have any articulation agreements because we do not have high school [...]

A separate school profile citing national rankings lists Jamestown High School as highly placed within the state and showing an overall U.S. News score of 83.45/100 with proficiency and graduation metrics; the profile does not specify its reporting year and should be read as a supplemental snapshot rather than the state accountability measure.

For Jamestown residents, the ranking matters for parents weighing secondary programs, employers hiring local graduates, and policymakers shaping staffing and career-technical programming. The district’s strong Career Standards Benchmark performance and the Choice Ready rank give Jamestown leverage in discussions about teacher retention, professional development, and alignment between diplomas and local workforce needs. Officials and board members will likely use the Choice Ready data as they review classroom staffing, CTE offerings, and partnerships that could sustain or raise readiness rates in coming years.