School #530, Brooklyn Park MN - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on School #530

School #530 is an alternative school in Brooklyn Park, part of Intermediate School District 287, a cooperative district that serves member school districts across the western Twin Cities metro. The school’s name itself is a label, not a familiar public identity, and that anonymity reflects its nature: it is a small, specialized program rather than a neighborhood school. It serves students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, though its total enrollment is very small, with just a handful of students spread across most grade levels. That distribution—a single student in first grade, one in fourth, one in fifth, a few in the upper elementary and middle grades, and a small cluster in high school—suggests a program that accepts students on an individualized basis rather than a full cohort model.

The student body is predominantly white, with Black and Hispanic students making up a notable share. Nearly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a substantial portion of families face economic strain. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, a gap that parents may wish to clarify with the school directly.

Because this is an alternative school, the usual academic benchmarks carry a different meaning. State testing results from the most recent year show proficiency rates that are very low in both math and reading across tested grades, and science results were suppressed due to the extremely small number of test-takers. For a typical school those figures would raise serious concerns, but for an alternative setting serving students who have often struggled in mainstream environments, the context is different. The single-year data provides only a snapshot with no trend line to compare, and a parent looking for a clear measure of academic progress may need to ask the school about its own assessments and student growth metrics.

Brooklyn Park itself is a large, car-oriented suburb northwest of Minneapolis, with a mix of older and newer residential areas, major highways, and extensive parkland. The population has been declining slightly in recent years, and the city is served by three separate school districts, of which Intermediate School District 287 operates as a regional cooperative. The district’s publicly reported programming includes a Diploma On service that reengages out-of-school students, a reminder that this entire system is built around students who need nontraditional pathways.

For a parent, the essential question is what School #530 is designed to do. Its small size, alternative designation, and minimal public-facing academic data all point to a program that likely serves students with significant academic, behavioral, or emotional needs—students for whom a conventional school was not working. The fact that the school spans K through 12 with a handful of students each year reinforces that this is not a general enrollment option; it is a placement option, often through a district referral process. A parent considering this school should expect to have a direct conversation with the program about its approach, its staffing ratios, the kinds of supports it provides, and how it measures progress for its particular population. The available data will not tell that story on its own.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 55 pts below state median · ▼ 46 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 8% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 70%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

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

English language arts

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 36% · ▼ 36 pts below district

▼ 54 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 9% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · district not reported

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

Grade 80%

School 0% · district not reported

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 37 pts below county median

This schoolIntermediate School District 287, 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.