Big Stone Colony Elementary, Graceville MN

Original Research by School Decision on Big Stone Colony Elementary

Big Stone Colony Elementary is a small school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on a colony road near Graceville, a tiny rural farming community in western Minnesota. The school sits in open agricultural country, close to the shore of Toqua Lake, a recreational lake with two campgrounds, a golf course and a shooting club. Graceville itself was founded in the 1870s as a Catholic Irish farming colony and remains primarily residential with a compact downtown, surrounded by farmland. The town covers only a few square miles and most destinations are walkable. Local amenities are modest: a golf course, a public library inside the community building that also houses city offices and emergency services, a small municipal airport, and an assisted living complex. The local economy is built on agriculture, health care through the Essentia Health clinic, and the school district. Graceville’s population has been stable and slow-growing; no major new housing developments are reported.

The school is part of the Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley school district, though it is a separate attendance site from the district’s elementary school in Clinton. The district’s high school is located in Graceville, about a short drive from the colony school, but Big Stone Colony Elementary itself only goes through eighth grade. There is no graduation rate to report because the school does not serve high school grades, and no data on course access, advanced programs, or staffing were available.

Enrollment is tiny, and the student body is entirely white. The great majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, indicating a high level of economic need. State testing results from the most recent year show that a very small share of students met proficiency standards in both math and reading; the school’s overall proficiency index placed it in the bottom quarter relative to other districts in Big Stone County. The school’s enrollment is so small that test results can shift substantially from one year to the next, and sample sizes were too small to report science proficiency rates publicly. A parent may want to discuss curriculum and learning supports directly with the school to get a fuller picture.

Housing in the area is comparatively affordable, with home values below state and national medians. The median household income in Graceville is below the national figure, and the poverty rate is well above average. The community provides a quiet, close-knit rural setting. For families looking for a very small school environment with strong ties to a farming community, Big Stone Colony Elementary is that kind of place. The academic outcomes, based on the limited state data, are low compared with county peers, but the school’s scale and context mean that individual student progress may not be well captured by standardized tests alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 60% · ▼ 60 pts below district

▼ 55 pts below state median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 52% · ▼ 51 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median

Grade 60%

School 0% · District 24% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 33% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 67% · ▼ 67 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 70% · ▼ 70 pts below district

▼ 54 pts below state median

Grade 60%

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

▼ 46 pts below state median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 67% · ▼ 67 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median

This schoolCLINTON-GRACEVILLE-BEARDSLEY, 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.