The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in English language arts. The lowest is 10% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cannon River Stem School
Cannon River STEM School, an independent charter district operating a single K-8 school, announced it would close in June 2025, citing financial challenges. The Minnesota Department of Education lists the organization as not active, and the school had accumulated repeated citations for governance failures and contract violations, as publicly reported. For families considering this school, the most immediate fact is that it will no longer accept students after the 2024-25 school year. The closure eliminates the only public school option within this district, so families in its attendance area must look elsewhere.
The school itself was a standalone charter district serving kindergarten through eighth grade. Its enrollment was modest for a K-8 setting, with classes from the low to mid twenties in most grades. The student population was predominantly White, with a sizable Hispanic share and small numbers of students identifying as two or more races, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Black. Data on economic disadvantage and special education participation was not available from the state, so the share of students receiving free or reduced-price meals or with individualized education programs is unknown.
Academically, state assessment results from the 2024-25 school year show reading proficiency rates that varied by grade, reaching about two fifths of students in some grades but staying lower in others. Math proficiency rates were very low across all tested grades, with several grades showing that fewer than one in ten students met the state's proficiency standard. In science, proficiency was low in the one grade tested, and no students in the tested eighth-grade cohort reached the proficient level. The overall proficiency index, which averages performance across subjects and grades, placed the district in the bottom quartile among Rice County's districts.
Chronic absenteeism, measured for this district, was above the midpoint of the comparison group, meaning a substantial portion of students missed significant instructional time. Per-pupil spending was toward the upper range among the county's districts, a notable contrast given the academic outcomes.
The school's name includes "STEM," but no specific program offerings were available in the data to describe what that meant in practice. The district had no high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. The school building was located in Faribault, though the district's geographic footprint was limited to its single site.
For any family who might have been weighing this school before the closure announcement, the academic picture was one of consistently low performance on state assessments, with particular weakness in mathematics. The closure itself makes such consideration moot for new enrollments. For those whose children currently attend, the end of the school year marks the end of the district's operations, and families will need to identify a new school for the following fall. The district's brief and public records indicate that the Minnesota Department of Education lists the organization as not active, a status that aligns with the announced closure.
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