North Woods Elementary, Cook MN - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on North Woods Elementary

North Woods Elementary is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the St. Louis County School District. It sits on a campus shared with North Woods Secondary School, on a rural road outside the small community of Cook, Minnesota. Cook is a very small town that bills itself as the gateway to Lake Vermilion and has seen a steady population decline over many years; its economy is anchored by the Cook Hospital and the school district itself, with many residents commuting alone by car.

The elementary enrollment is a small size for its grade band. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that places this school in a community with a median household income well below the county median. The student body is predominantly white, with a notable share of American Indian or Alaska Native students and a very small Hispanic population.

State testing results from the most recent school year show an uneven pattern across grades and subjects. In third grade math and reading, just over four in ten students met state standards. Fourth grade math looked stronger, with close to six in ten proficient, while fourth grade reading was lower. Fifth grade was the most challenging year in the data: reading proficiency was around a third, math proficiency was very low, and science proficiency was also low. Sixth graders showed a much stronger result in reading, where roughly seven in ten met the bar, while math remained below that level. Because only one year of testing data was available for this school, there is no comparison to prior performance to show whether these results are trending.

Overall, North Woods Elementary’s combined proficiency across subjects and grades sits below the midpoint among districts in St. Louis County. A parent reviewing these numbers may want to ask the school how it supports students through these grade-level transitions, particularly in math and science.

The school serves pre-kindergarten, so there is no graduation rate to report for an elementary school. Information on chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, and staffing was not available in the data provided. Civil rights data was also absent, so a parent who wants to understand special education services or English learner supports would need to reach out to the school directly.

The district brief did not turn up any recent changes that would be relevant to families, such as boundary adjustments, program launches, or facilities work. The town of Cook has been losing population for decades, and no major new housing developments were identified in a search, so the enrollment context is one of stability or slow contraction rather than growth.

For a family considering this school, the main characteristics to weigh are its rural setting, the small size, the above-average share of students from lower-income households, and the test results that vary widely from grade to grade and subject to subject. The school’s location on the same campus as the secondary school may create a sense of continuity for students moving up. The community itself is outdoors-oriented and far from any urban center, so this is a setting for families who prefer that isolation and who are comfortable with the limited local services of a very small town.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 48% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 54% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 21% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 37% · ▲ 4 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 47% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 63% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 18% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

This schoolST. LOUIS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income23%Higher-income50%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income29%Higher-income38%9 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income64%Higher-income77%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income67%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income0%Higher-income13%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income47%19 pp gap