The top reported proficiency rate is 18% in English language arts. The lowest is 0% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on New Century Academy
New Century Academy is a small Minnesota district serving grades six through twelve, operating a single school of the same name. The district sits within McLeod County. Its enrollment is small, and the student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up roughly one-tenth of the student body.
This is a district where state testing results are very low, and where a family should plan to investigate academic support structures directly with the school. In math, for seventh grade, no student tested as proficient on the state assessment. Results for sixth and eighth grade math were suppressed, likely due to very small testing groups, which is common in a school this size. In reading, the only fully reported grade-level result, for seventh grade, showed that fewer than one in five students met the proficiency bar; sixth and eighth grade reading results were again suppressed. In eighth grade science, one in ten students scored proficient.
The available data shows that the district’s overall proficiency index, a measure that averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, places the district in the bottom quartile among McLeod County’s districts. The chronic absenteeism rate is the highest in the county comparison group, falling into the bottom quartile for that measure as well. The district’s per-pupil spending sits in the upper range among its county peers, suggesting that the funding level does not appear to explain the academic results.
Because the district only serves grades six through twelve, the state did not report a four-year graduation rate in the data provided. That gap is not a signal of a problem; it is simply that the metric was not available for this entity.
The district reported a capital outlay for construction in a recent fiscal year, publicly reported as a facility investment that may affect the learning environment. No other district-level initiatives or strategic priorities were found in a search, so this narrative does not speculate about them.
For a parent considering New Century Academy, the central question is what academic supports and interventions the school provides for students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards. The school’s small size, with fewer than one hundred students total across all grades, could mean more individualized attention, but the testing data suggests that attention has not yet translated into broad proficiency in reading and math. A family would want to speak with school staff about student progress monitoring, tutoring, special education services, and the school’s approach to re-engaging students who are chronically absent. The peer environment is a small group of students, the majority of whom are white, in a rural county district. The housing market and growth context for the area are not detailed in the available data. This district fits a family that is seeking a very small learning community and is prepared to ask pointed questions about how the school addresses low academic performance and high absenteeism.
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