The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Pre-k - 5th Grade Building
Pre-K - 5th Grade Building is the elementary school in Clinton, a small rural town in Big Stone County on Minnesota's western edge. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of the Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley district. The school sits in a compact town where the elementary building, city offices, and the county fairgrounds are all within a short distance of one another, reflecting a traditional small-town layout where civic and school life are integrated rather than separated onto distant campuses.
The school enrolls fewer than two hundred students total across its seven grade levels, a size that creates small classes and the likelihood that teachers know every child by name. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students and a very small number of students of other backgrounds. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that is moderate for a rural Minnesota district. The town itself has a quiet agricultural character, with grain elevators and Eli Lake as local landmarks, and the broader area has seen population decline in recent years, which is typical of many western Minnesota communities.
Academically, the school's state assessment results present a mixed picture. In reading, third grade and fifth grade students performed well, with a majority meeting state standards. Fourth grade reading was a weaker area, with less than half of students reaching proficiency. In math, third grade students performed solidly, with a clear majority meeting standards, while fourth and fifth grade math results were more uneven, falling below that third-grade mark. Science is assessed in fifth grade only, and that score was low, with a relatively small share of students reaching proficiency. The state assessment changed somewhat in the most recent year, and that may affect comparability, but a parent would want to look into science instruction further with the school, as it stands out as a soft spot. The school's overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades is above the midpoint when compared with the other districts in Big Stone County, a county with only two districts total, so that is a narrow comparison.
State testing data from earlier years was not available for this school, so there is no trend line to show whether performance is improving or declining. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and serves only early elementary grades, so it has no graduation rate, no college readiness metrics, and no high school course access data to report.
Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks, with home values that are well below the Minnesota median. A family moving to Clinton will find a low-cost housing market, though the local job base is thin, with the school district and small-town businesses as the primary employers. No public library was identified in Clinton itself, which is a gap a family may want to investigate.
For a family considering this school, the picture is of a very small, community-rooted elementary school where class sizes are small and teachers can give individual attention. The academic results are uneven, with some grades doing well in reading and math and others trailing, and the science result is a clear area to ask about. The school fits a family that values a quiet rural environment, a close-knit setting, and affordable housing, and who is comfortable being proactive about understanding specific grade-level outcomes.
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