Original Research by School Decision on Paladin Career and Tech High School
Paladin Career and Tech High School is a single-school district in Anoka County, Minnesota, serving grades nine through twelve with a career and technical focus. Its enrollment is small, and it draws a student body that is about half white and includes a substantial black population, a notable Hispanic share, and a modest share of students who identify with two or more races. The grade distribution shows a much smaller number of incoming ninth-graders than twelfth-graders, suggesting that many students transfer in later in their high school careers, which is common for schools that emphasize vocational and technical pathways.
Publicly reported state testing data was not available for this school, and no graduation rate appears in the public record. Because Paladin is a career and technical charter school, these gaps may reflect an alternative assessment structure or a student population that does not take the standard state exams; a parent interested in academic performance measures would need to ask the school directly what benchmarks it tracks. The same caution applies to the graduation rate, which is not reported in the available data.
Chronic absenteeism at Paladin is very high, placing it in the bottom quartile among Anoka County’s thirteen school districts. This is a significant soft spot. A high rate of chronic absence can reflect a range of underlying factors, from student population characteristics to school climate or attendance policies, and a family considering the school would want to understand the school’s approach to attendance support and what drives that figure. On the financial side, per-pupil current spending is in the upper range compared with other districts in the county, which may reflect the costs of maintaining a specialized facility and career-focused programs.
The school underwent a notable physical change. By publicly reported accounts, an affiliated nonprofit building corporation was established in 2021, secured bonds to acquire a property in Coon Rapids, and the school moved into that new facility for the 2022-23 school year. The school receives state lease aid to fund its lease payments to the building corporation. This relocation is a lasting operational change that ties the school to a specific site and long-term financial commitments.
Paladin Career and Tech is not a comprehensive traditional high school; it is a small, specialized charter district built around career and technical education. The student body appears to draw many who enter later, and the absence of standard academic outcome data makes it hard to compare with conventional district schools. The combination of high per-pupil spending and very high chronic absenteeism is unusual and worth scrutiny. For a family drawn to a hands-on, career-focused setting and willing to ask detailed questions about attendance, completion, and placement, this school may offer a pathway not available in larger comprehensive high schools. But the gaps in the public record mean that getting a clear picture requires direct engagement with the school.
See more original research from School Decision →